Quinn: Not an easy decision to bench Smith

It was easy to see the difficulty of the decision drawn on David Quinn’s face.

But it was one the Rangers coach felt he had to make, scratching defenseman Brendan Smith for Wednesday night’s 5-0 thumping of the Islanders at the Garden. It was the fourth time in the past six games that Smith has been scratched, but it was the first time Quinn had to scratch someone that he didn’t think deserved it.

“Really the first time this year that a guy is sitting that shouldn’t be,” Quinn said before be brought Brady Skjei back into the lineup after his two-game sojourn in street clothes. “But as I’ve talked about, we really feel like we have eight defensemen that can play. Every time we’ve sat a guy up to this point it’s been an easy conversation because their play warranted it. I can’t say that about Smitty.”

➤ The 24-year-old Skjei played a relatively steady 17:28 while paired with Tony DeAngelo.

“I wasn’t playing the way I wanted to play, and coaches agreed with that,” Skjei said about the benching. “To get two games off and watch — obviously you never want to sit out — but you see the game from a different view, for sure. I feel like I bounced back.”

Quinn said he thought in the first period that Skjei was “feeling his way back in the lineup. But you can really see in the second and third period, a lot more confidence.”

➤ The Islanders had a late scratch of winger Cal Clutterbuck, who was sick.

He joined a crowded group of Islanders regulars unable to play, with Matt Martin remaining out since suffering his upper-body injury on Nov. 1, along with Casey Cizikas (lower body) and Andrew Ladd (lower body).

“No excuse,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “There are some guys that are stabilizing forces, but at the same time, there are guys that want opportunity, and this is their opportunity. You have to grab hold of that, and some guys aren’t grabbing hold of that.”

➤ Rangers winger Cody McLeod left the game with a hand injury suffered in a fight at 9:32 of the second period when he was just an assist away from a Gordie Howe hat trick. McLeod scored in the first period, and reluctantly fought Ross Johnston in the second.

Quinn seemed to get a lengthy explanation from the officials on why Johnston didn’t get an instigator penalty — or at least an extra roughing call — after he had accosted McLeod before he finally accepted the duel, which Johnston won unanimously.