John Tortorella
WAR GAMES: A witness to Monday night’s verbal exchange in Game 4 between Devils coach Pete DeBoer (above) and Rangers coach John Tortorella says the two “hate each other.” (
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This will test the tradition of the Stanley Cup playoffs, whether John Tortorella and Pete DeBoer actually shake hands or trade fists when this series ends either Friday or Sunday.
They are now fully baptized in the waters of the Hudson, and the Battle of. The rival combatants, which is what they’ve become entering Game 5 tonight at the Garden, call it “hate,” even the well-mannered ones, like classy Devils center Travis Zajac.
DeBoer says he doesn’t “want to use words like hate.”
But one witness of the war of words between DeBoer and Tortorella, the Rangers coach, says that’s how to describe the venom they spat bench-to-bench in Game 4, which the Devils won 4-1 to square the series at 2-2.
“They hate each other,” the eyewitness said. “There was real passion. And they weren’t talking about where they came from [DeBoer, Ontario; Tortorella, Boston].”
Tortorella and DeBoer also went at it verbally from their respective benches March 19 at the Garden, and afterwards, too. DeBoer called Tortorella a “hypocrite,” or lacking in memory, accused the Rangers coach of earlier initiating the opening faceoff fights that occurred a third time that night. The next day, Tortorella told DeBoer to “just shut up,” adding that he should do the same.
DeBoer was said to object Monday to the nasty play that unfolded in the third period, when Mike Rupp punched an unsuspecting Martin Brodeur and Stu Bickel crosschecked Ryan Carter across the neck. The Devils were no angels, with Ilya Kovalchuk spearing Ryan Callahan.
DeBoer’s cooler head prevailed yesterday. Whether it remains that way tonight is in question.
“I don’t want to use words like ‘hate,’ ’’ DeBoer said. “The rivalry is what I expected it to be. I’d heard about it. And it’s lived up to its billing.
“The most important thing for us is the young guys learning to manage their emotions against a rival like the Rangers, and I think we’ve done a very good job of that.”
DeBoer did not apologize for his part. “Emotion takes over. I took offense at what happened on the ice, and that was my outlet, right or wrong,” he said. “I don’t anticipate any more of that. I think the stakes are too high going forward here for any of that stuff to show up.
“But you never know.”
His players seem to have enjoyed the show.
“He’s an emotional guy, he wants to win, just like us, and it rubs off. It rubs off on us,” Zajac said. “And to see how much he cares about the players and his team and about us having success, that it makes us feel good.”
Zajac admitted feelings cross the line of sportsmanship in this rivalry.
“For me it was the first year. You have your leaders like Marty and Patty [Elias] and those guys and see how they compete against that team. It makes it easy to get involved and hate that team,” he said.
Brodeur said his team should not retaliate against Henrik Lundqvist tonight for Rupp’s punch.
“It’s all forgotten,” Brodeur said yesterday. “You need to put everything in check. What happened in one game usually doesn’t carry in the other ones.”
Usually might not include tonight.
“We know that it’s going to be emotional. It’s a hostile environment in the Garden,” Brodeur said. “They’re going to try to be a little more physical the way they were late in the game there. We have to do what we do and not worry about anything else, and just go in there and win the hockey game.”
“You don’t like to see a play where your goalie is taking a sucker punch but now is not the time of the season to be responding to it,” Bryce Salvador said. “Maybe they’re getting frustrated. And so we’re really just focusing on playing between the whistles, and that’s where we’ve been having success. And we’re not going to change that.
“Now is not the time to be settling scores, because only one team’s going to move on from here. And, yes, you want to stick up for all your teammates and all that, but what we’ve just seen throughout the playoffs, that’s not the way.”
It may be, the rest of the way. Neither team is likely to go out quietly, not when they’ve gone this far, come this close.