What might have been just a simmering feud burst into full blown gamesmanship, and likely a little bit of hate, yesterday when coach John Tortorella accused the Devils of embellishing when checked/hit by the Rangers and staying down when they could get up as well as their use of a pick play to free up space, as seen on the PPG by Ilya Kovalchuk in Game 2. In addition, he highlighted the unpenalized elbow by Danius Zubrus on Anton Stralman and "flying check" by Zach Parise on Michael Del Zotto compared to Brandon Prust's elbow on Anton Volchenkov that resulted in a one-game suspension to Prust for tonight. Devils' coach Pete DeBoer's response of "comical," I am sure belies of what he really would love to say to Torts. So we now have some additional juice for tonight's game and series that really didn't need any more "hatred" added in, given the generic rivalry, in-season tete-a-tetes, along with what's at stake. Get ready for the emotions to be flowing and flying tonight.
I will tackle a few of the subplots:
1) Prust's suspension. I covered this yesterday but will reiterate here. Given the crackdown in the league on headshots, or what should be the crackdown on head shots, regardless of the intent, or lack thereof, a suspension was warranted. However, Prust chose to explain it, I am glad to see his comments today where he admitted that he got the elbow up and that's something that is trying to be eradicated from the game.
Much of the chatter has been on comparing this hit to those in prior series, and more important, to those of Zubrus and Parise in Game 3.
Zubrus definitely appeared to come up high on Stralman and a penalty could have been called, plus having it reviewed by Shanahan.
Parise looked to have left his feet to hit MDZ and came up high on him.
We can sit and talk from now till was down the road on these and if we believe those two Devils' hits should have been called or if a suspension was warranted. But just because one wasn't called on these does not mean that Prust did not warrant a suspension. Torts is trying to defend his player, as seen by his comments that Prust is a hard-nosed, clean player with no suspensions or hearing in close to 300 games played, which is what a coach normally would do. In addition, this is another in his line of "gamesmanship" to get the officials and league to watch both sides closer.
From watching the play, which I admit I didn't recall after seeing it live, it's pretty clear that a pick was set. What Torts is doing here is what coaches from time immemorial have done and that is try and get a call for his time. Pat Riley and Phil Jackson used to bring up calls like this in press conferences to put a little germ in the officials' mind so that it will be called. If anyone followed twitter during the 76ers-Celtics game, many of the comments late were whether or not KG would get called for his illegal moving screen. KG does it every time, yet it's rarely called, but the fact that everyone called it before it happened is evidence that the mindset is out there for everyone including the officials. Torts is trying the same thing here. Use the referencing and pointing out of it in the public forum to hopefully influence the officials in the game. Time will tell if that happens.
3) Ramifications of the gamesmanship. We will have to see if if what Torts said had any effect on the officials. More concerning to me, and something Todd Cordell and I spoke about, is will there be any extracurricular stuff as a result of the comments? Todd and I both think that it could occur especially if the game is out of reach. The good news is that DeBoer did not dress any of his extra forwards to try and send a message, with only Josefson in for Sykora, but given the increased level of hate and dislike that now exists, would anyone be shocked if something happened?
Thanks to Todd Cordell for the line combinations in his excellent Devils blog:
Rangers:
Carl Hagelin - Brad Richards - Marian Gaborik
Chris Kreider - Derek Stepan - Ryan Callahan
Artem Anisimov - Brian Boyle - Ruslan Fedotenko
Mike Rupp - John Mitchell - Stu Bickel
(as seen Bickel in for the suspended Prust with Brandon Dubinsky not yet ready, but getting closer. I think Dubi could be ready by Game 5, with Mitchell in danger of losing his spot. With Bickel in and Prust out, look for Brad Richards to see some PK time along with Stepan)
Ryan McDonagh - Dan Girardi
Marc Staal - Anton Stralman
Michael Del Zotto - Steve Eminger
(Eminger, who played 6:20 in Game 3, his first action this series and in a while, is in because Bickel has been moved up to forward. That could change for Game 5)
Lundqvist
Devils:
Zach Parise - Travis Zajac - Dainius Zubrus
Patrik Elias - Adam Henrique - Ilya Kovalchuk
Alexei Ponikarovsky - Jacob Josefson - David Clarkson
Ryan Carter - Stephen Gionta - Steve Bernier
(Josefson in, Sykora out)
Bryce Salvador- Marek Zidlicky
Andy Greene - Mark Fayne
Anton Volchenkov - Peter Harrold
Brodeur
Congrats to Ryan Callahan and his wife Kyla on the birth of their first child. Would a GWG be too much to ask for a gift for the baby? As Kenny Albert pointed out via twitter,
tonight will be game #100 for the Rangers this season. Gaborik, Richards, Stepan, McDonagh, Girardi and Prust have played in the 1st 99, all but Prust get to hit triple-digits in Game 4.
Six previous times the Rangers have entered a playoff game with a shot at taking a two-game lead, all other times they failed. Tonight is the night to reverse that trend.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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