After the Rangers’ penultimate game of the season, a 4-2 loss to the Islanders at UBS Arena on Tuesday night, Peter Laviolette was seething.
The head coach had never been so furious after another game in his first year behind the Rangers bench.
And it’s not because his team couldn’t get the win after coming back from 3-0 down to make it a one-goal game going into the third, or anything related to the play of the Blueshirts in general.
Laviolette was seriously challenged by a collision between Mika Zibanejad and Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech in the third period, which knocked out the Rangers’ number 1 center for the remainder of the game, although he later returned to the bench.
“He came back at the end of that vicious hit,” Laviolette finally said through pursed lips, after taking a brief pause to collect his thoughts. “He’s back. That vicious shoulder, that elbow to the head. Look at that.”
When asked if he thought it was intentional, the Rangers manager firmly replied that it was.
Laviolette became even angrier when asked about Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson’s hit from behind on Vincent Trocheck late in the game, which the Rangers second-line center personally addressed with the referee afterwards.
After describing the hit as vicious, Laviolette launched a broader denunciation of the Islanders’ overall play Tuesday.
“I think we own the game,” he said. “The puck was on our sticks throughout the second and third period. It was hard tonight having to overcome all that. What we’re talking about, it was tough, but our guys kept fighting and fighting until the end.
“Games are important right now. They mean a lot. Our guys are fighting hard out there.
Islanders head coach Patrick Roy seemed genuinely surprised to have to answer questions about the aforementioned incidents.
Repeatedly reiterating that he thought the Pelech/Zibanejad collision was accidental, Roy eventually said he thought it was a waste of time to continue debating it.
“It was totally accidental, there’s no doubt in my mind,” he said. “I think (referee) Kelly (Sutherland) was in a really good position to see everything and he made it clear right away that it was accidental. But sometimes frustration makes you say things.
The Rangers were besieged for the first 20 minutes by an Islanders team playing like their lives depended on it.
Jumping out to a 3-0 lead in a hurry to set themselves up for a comfortable finish in arguably their most important game of the season so far, the Islanders then committed three straight penalties midway through the third.
And with an excellent power play unit like the Rangers, penalties can be detrimental to their opponents.
That was the case when the Rangers twice came close thanks to power play goals from Chris Kreider and Adam Fox.
Islanders captain Anders Lee then sealed the victory with an empty-net goal with seconds remaining in regulation.
Not only are the Islanders still a potential first-round matchup for the Rangers, but there is still a regular season meeting between the two clubs in four days.
New York Post
