Brandon Dubinsky did not hesitate. He saw Marian Gaborik get stapled to the back wall on a borderline hit by Toronto defenseman Jeff Finger after No. 10 had been foiled on a breakaway 8:14 into the second period with the Rangers up 3-0 in a game they would win 5-1.
And so Dubinsky immediately went after Finger, engaging him even if it cost him an extra two minutes in the box. It’s what winning players do. It’s what winning teams do.
“I think it’s a fine line in that you don’t want to jump in and hurt your team by going a man down, but at the same time, you have to protect your best player, and Gabby is our best player, so I went,” Dubinsky said.
“I don’t think it had to be me. I’m sure if someone else were closer, he would have gone and done the same thing. Even if you take a penalty, those are the type that you kill off.”
Gaborik, who had been left on his own nearly three months ago in the infamous Jan. 14 incident in Philadelphia in which no teammate came to his rescue while he took a series of punches from Dan Carcillo, lauded Dubinsky.
“It was a great, great job by him,” Gaborik told The Post. “That’s what a team guy does.
“It was unbelievable. It feels great when a teammate jumps in for you.”
Coach John Tortorella delivered a nuanced response when asked for his take, seeming to endorse the specific act while decrying the need for teammates to respond to clean hits to top players.
“I don’t mind that,” said Tortorella, adding that he did not know whether the hit was clean or not. “It’s one of your top players. . . . But I don’t agree [with the need to retaliate for] good clean hits. It’s part of toughness, to keep playing.
“There’s too much of that [junk] in the game now, but if Dubi felt he needed to step in, that’s good.”
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Jody Shelley scored a knock out over Toronto heavyweight Colton Orr on Feb. 8, four days before the Rangers acquired him in a trade with San Jose. Orr attempted to challenge Shelley several times when the Blueshirts were in Toronto on March 27, but No. 45 declined.
Last night, with the Rangers up 1-0 early, Orr again challenged Shelley a couple of times. Frustrated when Shelley again refused to accept, Orr dropped his gloves and began swinging before the men engaged in more of a wrestling match than a heavyweight bout at 2:25 of the first.
Orr, the former Rangers enforcer, received a minor for instigating, a major for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct. Shelley picked up a five-minute major for fighting.
“I wasn’t surprised because I knew what he wanted and knew the position he was in,” Shelley told The Post. “It was 1-0, I just wanted to play it, and it worked out well.
“Look, he’s a good kid,” Shelley added. “He’s a good, honest guy. I’d like to give him a chance, but at this time of year it’s not the time to give him another shot. We’re playing for something different.”
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Erik Christensen, who had gone 12 straight without a goal, scored twice in the first period while resembling Jean Ratelle. Christensen left the game with 5:20 remaining after losing his wind in taking a hit from Francois Beauchemin.
“I took the hit in kind of a funny way,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it, and sometimes when you sort of exhale, you get hit in the wrong spot in your chest. It’s not the best feeling.”
Christensen scored at 0:21 of the first, going to the net and converting a neat Brandon Dubinsky centering feed. He made the score 3-0 on a breakaway backhand after being sprung by Gaborik.
“I find that if I contribute early on it just sort of sparks you and the adrenaline starts flowing,” he said. “It felt like the first couple of periods you have an extra jump in your step.”
Tortorella could not resist informing the press that before the game, Christensen had been, “challenged a little bit as far as stepping up to the plate.”
Odd, Tortorella never seems to divulge those instances when he challenges players who do not respond, but that must never happen.