The rivalry between the Rangers and Islanders was hardly lacking anything before last night’s 4-2 Blueshirts victory, but it now may be more intense after Radek Martinek accused Ryan Hollweg of trying to rip open a cut on his face during a first period scrum.
“He just came in and said he [would] take my stitches out,” said Martinek, who played despite having 15 stitches from when he took a skate in the face against the Senators on Wednesday. “I think that was stupid. He touched it.”
Martinek said nothing like that had ever happened to him before.
“I think he would show a little respect, but he didn’t,” he said. “I can not respect him.”
Hollweg insisted he didn’t say anything and didn’t try to do more than get Martinek and the Islanders away from teammate Colton Orr, who was outnumbered.
“I was just protecting my teammate,” Hollweg said. “I might have face-washed him, but I wasn’t attempting to pull out his stitches by any means.”
Regardless, Hollweg also drew the ire of coach Ted Nolan.
“A guy like Hollweg tries to scratch a cut open on someone’s face is not professional, not a classy thing to do,” Nolan said.