Rangers cut the chatter, let play do the talking
After Sunday, all the talk about the Carolina HurricanesNew York Rangers series was… about all the talk.
On Tuesday, the Rangers simply let their play do the talking.
A 4-1 win in Game 4 to even the series certainly spoke loud and clear, with the most thunderous notes coming early on.
After Hurricanes forward Max Domi’s after-the-final-whistle efforts to go after Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren on Sunday, Jacob Trouba lined him up with a thunderous, clean check along the boards early on Tuesday night, that both set the tone for the game, and also ultimately got the Rangers the early power play they used to score the contest’s first goal.
When Carolina defenseman Steven
Lorentz was given a five-minute major for fighting, ten-minute misconduct and a two-minute instigator penalty at the 11:38 mark of the opening frame, New York’s Frank Vatrano capitalized with a goal on the ensuing man advantage at 13:31, giving the Rangers a lead they’d ultimately never relinquish.
“I think it was a big hit, and it changed the course of the game a little bit with them taking that penalty and us capitalizing,” said Rangers forward Andrew Copp, who finished with a goal and two assists on the night.
Head coach Gerard Gallant echoed similar sentiments.
“That was a big hit by Trouba,” Gallant said. “He steps up at the blue line, and obviously it’s a big part of the game. Good, clean, hard hit. They stepped up and got an instigator penalty there, and we scored and capitalized on that, so that was big for us.”
On the Carolina side, they didn’t see it quite the same way. While their head coach, Rod Brind’Amour didn’t seem to have much issue with the hit itself, he was disappointed that an apparent crosscheck to the face of Lorentz, which occurred when Trouba got his stick up while defending himself as Lorentz came rushing in to defend his teammate, went uncalled. It would have evened out the penalties, and the teams would have skated four a side, instead of the Rangers getting a power play out of the exchange.
“That was a tough first period for us, for sure,” Brind’Amour said.
“What are you going to say, I honestly didn’t look at it that closely. I know our guy comes in after the hit. I think they’re trying to do their job on that, if there’s a good hit, you shouldn’t come in and create something.
I know he got cross-checked in the face pretty good when we came in. But, whatever. It’s over. You don’t want to take a penalty. I don’t think he was going in there to fight, he’s never fought anybody before. He’s sticking up for his teammates, which you like, you just can’t take a penalty there.”
That was really it for the rough stuff on the night, though, with the exception of another exchange after the final whistle had blown,
in which Rangers enforcer Ryan Reaves and Domi had to be separated as part of a scrum involving every skater on the ice.
At the end of his post-game press conference, Hurricanes forward Jordan Staal was asked if he had any comment on the Rangers involvement in trying to potentially send a message at the end of the game. “No,” was all he chose to offer. Looks like the play on ice is finally speaking for itself.