May 20, 2012, New York Rangers-New Jersey Devils off day main story for Metro Newspaper in NYC
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JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES
Anton Volchenkov, right, reacts to the elbow to the head from Brandon Prust.
Rangers head coach John Tortorella returned fire one day after
Devils head coach Peter DeBoer called Brandon Prust’s unpenalized elbow
to the back of Anton Volchenkov’s head in Game 3 Saturday afternoon
“head-hunting.”
“Prust has played probably 300-plus games without any hearing. He's
probably one of the most honest players,” Tortorella said in an
impassioned defense of his player. “I don't know what I'm going to do
with the lineup. I don't think he should be suspended. So I really
haven't gone that far because I don't think he should be.”
Prust told reporters following an optional skate at the Garden Sunday
morning that he had a phone hearing with Brendan Shanahan and the
league’s Department of Supplemental Discipline.
Prust has played in 279 regular seasons games with the Rangers, Phoenix
Coyotes and Calgary Flames. He led the Rangers with 156 penalty minutes
while playing all 82 games in the regular season. Prust’s 20 fighting
majors tied him with Boston Bruins left wing Shawn Thornton for the NHL
lead in the regular season. Prust’s 27 PIMS in 17 playoff games leads
the Rangers and has him tied with Phoenix’s Shane Doan and Martin Hanzal
for fourth most in the league.
“Great guy on and off the ice, and his play speaks for itself,” Michael
Del Zotto said. “You see how hard he works out there. He’s never been a
dirty player. He’s an honest player. He has a tough job. Most nights he
comes out against guys bigger than him. It’s not an easy job for him and
he does it so well.”
Along with providing a physical component, Prust is one the Rangers’
best penalty killers. He makes up the second penalty kill unit with
Brian Boyle. Prust averaged 1:40 (136:51 total) of short-handed time a
game during the regular season. Prust is averaging 1:50 (31:25 total) of
penalty kill time during the playoffs.
Tortorella used his bully pulpit to charge that the Devils have gotten
away with penalties and have used embellishment as a tactic to draw
penalties.
“I look at [Dainius] Zubrus' elbow to [Anton] Stralman. I look at [Zach]
Parise launching himself at Del Zotto. Maybe if our players stayed down
on the ice, we'll get something,” Tortorella said. “We tell our players
don't stay down on the ice. Get up. I'll leave it at that.”
He didn’t. Tortorella also complained about the Devils “setting picks” on power plays.
“Picking on the power play, set plays, picking on the power play. If we
want to start discussing officials with the media, I have a long list
here. That's a set play by Jersey. Picking so we can't get to Kovalchuk
to block a shot,” Tortorella said. “Game 2 it happened. I brought this
up already. It's a set play, because they know we're trying to block
shots from a pretty good shooter by them. So it happened to Danny
[Girardi]. It happened to [Ryan Callahan]. I hope we look for it.”
When told of Tortorella’s comments, DeBoer termed them “comical.”
Game 4 is Monday night at the Rock. The Rangers lead the best-of-7 two games to one.
Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.
Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.
http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/article/1143547--tortorella-fires-back-at-deboer-s-head-hunting-comment
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 8:59 PM
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