Zuccarello in ugly collision
MONTREAL — Expect to hear some rumblings out of the Canadiens corner soon concerning what could have been a dangerous knee-on-knee collision initiated by Rangers winger Mats Zuccarello on Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher.
With 7:40 to play in the second period of the Rangers’ 2-0 Game 1 victory over the Canadiens on Wednesday night at Bell Centre, Zuccarello was buried along the boards by Shea Weber. He got up angry, and while going to steal a puck from Gallagher near the Rangers blueline, their two right knees collided.
“I was going for the puck and I hit him — don’t make a big deal out of that,” Zuccarello told The Post. “I didn’t try to hit him, I’m trying to go for the puck. “S--t happens.” There was no penalty on the play, and Gallagher — who was his usually pest-like self all game — didn’t seem any worse for the wear.
But it did seem like Zuccarello started to get under the skin of the Canadiens. Rick Nash was speared by Andrei Markov with 25 seconds remaining in regulation, earning the Montreal defenseman a 10-minute misconduct, which coincided with roughing penalties for Zuccarello and Gallagher, the result of a scrum in front.
The Rangers spent the first period struggling to manage the puck in their own end, and Nick Holden made some of the most notable misplays.
With Holden playing alongside Marc Staal, and with veteran Kevin Klein as a healthy scratch, it’s possible coach Alain Vi
gneault might think about switching his lineup for Game 2 on Friday night. But if he is, he didn’t sound like it.
“It’s never going to be perfect,” Vigneault told The Post, walking down the hallway after the game. “But I thought our guys did a real good job tonight getting it out as quick as we could. They’re a team that puts a lot of pressure. We knew they were going to come, and they did, they came hard.”
Trade-deadline acquisition Brendan Smith played his first postseason game as a Ranger, and the defenseman battled hard over 16:15 of ice time, paired with rookie Brady Skjei, who was terrific.
“He’s come in, he’s played well for us, brought an edge to our back end,” Vigneault said of Smith. “Hopefully he can bring that again.”