Quinn: Hard-nosed Lemieux getting little too much of refs’ attention
Rangers coach David Quinn isn’t happy with the way referees have treated Brendan Lemieux lately.
At the conclusion of Sunday’s second period, Lemieux was handed a 10-minute misconduct for a scuffle with Ducks forward Carter Rowney. It wasn’t the first tussle Lemieux experienced in the Rangers’ 5-1 win at the Garden, and it certainly wasn’t the first this season.
But Quinn made a point to say he didn’t think referees have been calling physical plays involving Lemieux fairly.
“I would like for him to avoid putting himself in that position,” Quinn said when he was asked about the 10-minute misconduct. “He’s a very important player for us, he plays a hard game, he plays with an edge and we miss him when he’s not out there. I just wish he would’ve avoided that situation.
“With that being said, I know officiating is difficult, but I just wish he’d get treated a little bit differently than he has lately. I just want all of our players to be treated equal. Sometimes it doesn’t seem that way with him.”
It was a physical game, with both teams combining for 17 penalties. Lemieux even turned down a fight in the second period, when Erik Gudbranson dropped his gloves only to have the gritty winger skate away from him. Both teams were still penalized.
The hard-nosed Lemieux, who finished with an assist and three shots on goal, has collected a team-high 95 penalty minutes through 34 games this season.
➤ The Rangers have gone 16 straight power plays without a goal.
An 0-for-5 performance on the man-advantage Sunday kept that streak alive, dropping the Rangers’ powerplay percentage to 18.5 per
cent. But Chris Kreider didn’t seem too concerned with the drought.
“Power play comes in flows, we did the right things today,” Kreider said. “I thought we did a better job of getting pucks to the net. [We need to] continue to do that, results might not be there but it doesn’t mean that we’ll change what we’re doing.”
➤ The Rangers recalled forward Phillip Di Giuseppe from AHL-Hartford, following the win.
Di Giuseppe skated in a combined 24 games last season with the Hurricanes and Predators. The Rangers signed Di Giuseppe, who was drafted No. 38 overall by the Hurricanes in 2012, as a free agent this offseason.