LOS ANGELES — Dan Carcillo was shown mercy by the commissioner, and now he at least has a chance to dress for the Stanley Cup finals.
The Rangers’ tough-guy forward had his 10-game suspension reduced to six games after an in-person appeal meeting with Gary Bettman on Friday morning in New York, making him eligible to play in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals against the King. Game 1 is Wednesday night at Staples Center.
Carcillo has served three games of the suspension after he was disciplined for physical abuse of an official in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Canadiens. Bettman’s written explanation for the reduction cited a change in the rule he broke, going from 40.3 to 40.4, the latter “physical force to an official for the sole purpose of getting free of such official during or immediately following an altercation.”
“I respect the league’s decision,” Carcillo said at Tuesday’s media day. “Gary called me this morning, he said he dropped the category down and that’s what I thought should happen. It was an emotional time in the game, and I’m an emotional player. Sometimes you cross that line.
“Whether it was an accident or not, you can’t hit an official. And I know I’m wrong, and I apologize and own up to my part of it.”
The Kings are Carcillo’s former team. He was traded at midseason for a seventh-round pick, which would have gone back to the Rangers had Carcillo not stayed with the team all season.
“I’ve never really been around a room like this where everyone is so close and hangs out with each other,” Carcillo said. “It’s actually fun to go to the rink in New York. When it’s time to work, it’s time to work. We wouldn’t be at this point if that wasn’t the case. So coming back here, or somewhere else, it really doesn’t matter to me.”
Forward J.T. Miller practiced with the team for the first time since apparently injuring his right shoulder in Game 4 of the East finals, getting plowed into the goal post by Montreal defenseman Alexei Emelin.
“I feel good,” said Miller, who was indecisive about his status for Game 1. “I don’t know anything, we’ll see what happens. I’d like to think if I was called upon, I’d be ready to play.”
On the hit, Miller said he put himself “in a vulnerable spot,” and although he returned to the bench, he didn’t come back to play due more to the risk of making the injury worse.
Backup goalie Cam Talbot missed his third straight practice with an undisclosed injury, as third-stringer David LeNeveu prepared himself for the possibility of dressing as Henrik Lundqvist’s understudy in Game 1.
“[Talbot] is still listed as day-to-day, so we’ll figure all that out tomorrow, I guess,” LeNeveu said.
Kings goalie Jonathan Quick caused a bit of a commotion in Tuesday’s practice when he was hit near the collarbone with a shot from teammate Dwight King and crumbled to the ice apparently in pain. Quick left the ice soon thereafter but said “no” when asked if there were any lingering issues and “yes” when asked if he would be ready for Game 1 on Wednesday night.
He said he was hit “somewhere between my head and my knees.” Quick, who grew up as a Rangers fan in Connecticut, hardly was concerned about his availability, and neither was coach Darryl Sutter.
“Jonathan is a tough guy,” Sutter said. “He’s probably the first guy out of the room.”