Peter Laviolette was excited after the Rangers’ fourth-to-last game of the season, a 4-2 loss to the Islanders at UBS Arena on Tuesday night.
Never before had a head coach been so furious after a game in his first year on the Rangers bench.
And it wasn’t because his team couldn’t claw back the win after coming back from a 3-0 deficit to make it a one-point game going into the third, or anything to do with the Blueshirts’ play in general. do not have.
Laviolette took serious issue with a collision between Mika Zibanejad and Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech in the third period, and he subsequently returned to the bench, but the accident left the Rangers’ No. 1 center in the running. He was sent off in the match.
“He finally came back from that terrible blow,” Laviolette said, pausing for a moment to collect his thoughts, before finally pursing his lips. “He’s back. That brutal shoulder, his elbow to the head. Look.”
Asked if he thought it was intentional, the Rangers bench manager was adamant that it was.
Laviolette became even more angry when he was questioned about Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson hitting Vincent Trocheck from behind in the final minutes of the game. The Rangers’ second-line center discussed the question privately with the referee after the fact.
Laviolette issued a broad condemnation of the Islanders’ play as a whole on Tuesday, after saying that hit was bad as well.
“I think we owned the game,” he said. “The puck was on our sticks the entire second and third period. It was tough having to go through all of that tonight. What we’re talking about is tough. However, our friends continued to fight until the end.
“Games are important right now. They mean a lot. Our players are fighting hard out there.”
Islanders head coach Patrick Roy seemed genuinely surprised to have to answer questions regarding the aforementioned incident.
Roy said he reiterated many times that he thought the conflict between Perek and Zibanejad was a coincidence, but ultimately he thought it was a waste of time to continue the discussion.
“It was pure coincidence. There’s no doubt in my mind,” he said. “I think [referee] kelly [Sutherland] It quickly became clear that it was a coincidence, as he was in a very good position to see everything. But sometimes I get irritated and end up saying unnecessary things. ”
For the first 20 minutes, the Rangers were surrounded by an Islanders team that played like their lives depended on it.
Gaining a 3-0 lead in a hurry to set themselves up for a comfortable finish in perhaps the most important game of the season to date, the Islanders then committed three straight penalties in the center frame.
And with a top power play unit like the Rangers, penalties can be detrimental to opponents.
The same goes for the Rangers, who got within two points on power-play goals from Chris Kreider and Adam Fox.
Islanders captain Anders Lee then scored an empty-net goal with seconds left in regulation time to seal the victory.
Not only is the Islanders still a potential first-round matchup for the Rangers, but there is also one more regular season matchup between the two clubs within four days.
