One of the stranger stories that took place during last night’s surprisingly jam-packed night of interesting preseason action came during a heated exchange between Ilya Kovalchuk of the New Jersey Devils and Sean Avery of the New York Rangers.
Some people - including Rangers GM Glen Sather - wondered if Kovalchuk made a “cutthroat” motion toward Avery, a gesture that earned Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Nick Boynton an opening night suspension. Kovalchuk was adamant that he was making a (Dr. Evil inspired?) motion for Avery to “zip it,” which is the equivalent to asking water to dry off a bit.
Click here for a clip of the gesture to see for yourself.
Tom Gulitti of Fire & Ice has the story.
“I just told him to zip it,” Kovalchuk said after the Devils’ 5-4 overtime loss to the Rangers tonight. “I didn’t tell him I will kill him, so don’t suspend me.”
Rangers coach John Tortorella confirmed that Kovalchuk made a “zip your lip” motion and Avery himself said Kovalchuk should not be suspended for whatever gesture he made.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw the whole thing,” Tortorella said. “It was just shut your mouth. There was no slash.”
Avery said he didn’t care what was said or what gesture was made.
“I don’t think anyone should be suspended for what they say,” he said.
But Avery said referee Paul Devorksi told him that he had gotten his 10-minute misconduct for going after a superstar.
“He specifically told me I got it because [Kovalchuk] is a superstar, and I can’t go after a superstar,” Avery said of the dialog that took place in the box with 9:07 to go in the second. “I told him I make $4 million. I’m a superstar, too.”