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Lightning beat Rangers 2-1, Tortorella lashes out at officiating

John Tortorella

New York Rangers coach John Tortorella yells at officials during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010. The Rangers won 4-1. (AP Photo)

AP

It was a classic, tight checking, tough defensive game but not the sort of game that puts you to sleep. Vincent Lecavalier’s 5-on-3 power play goal broke a 1-1 tie in the early third period to give the Lightning the win. Dwayne Roloson held strong making 22 saves to make it stick to give the Lightning a key win as they look to win the Southeast Division.

How the Lightning got that 5-on-3 was the main point of contention for Rangers coach John Tortorella after the game. It started with a questionable boarding call to Dan Girardi for hitting Steve Downie awkwardly into the boards. Brian Boyle was then busted for delay of game for putting the puck over the glass. Moments later Lecavalier is ripping a shot past Henrik Lundqvist.

Tortorella was not amused with the call on Girardi that started things off. Andrew Gross of Ranger Rants gives us the foul-mouthed details from the coach.

“It’s a tough one,” Tortorella said. “We gave them **** all night long and they beat us five on three on a horse**** call to start.

“Yes,” Tortorella added when asked if the Rangers had done what it needed to do to win. “We defended. We had problems with their speed early on but then we finally got our forecheck going. They sit back, they want you to dump it in. They have that defenseman sitting back in the blue. We knew how they were going to play. And we got around the puck as the game went on. We had some chances, we didn’t score, right to the bitter end.

“As the game went on, it was one of those games. Both teams were grinding. I just wish the league would stay the hell out of it and let the teams decide it. It’s bull****. There’s too much at stake here.

“We took some stupid penalties but Danny Girardi’s is not a boarding call. It’s just a simple guess. We gave them nothing five on four, nothing and we get beat five on three and it starts with a bad call.”


So tell us how you really feel.

The hit that sent Girardi off that’s got Tortorella mad was a borderline call and as officiating is wont to do, it’s highly subjective in how things are seen. Downie went into the boards awkwardly but the play didn’t appear to be a textbook hit for boarding. These sorts of calls happen every game and no one is going to be able to go away happy.

Tortorella asking to let the teams decide the game, in this case, might’ve been all right as both teams were playing hard and giving it all they had. Asking that in other situations is inviting the “old” way back in where teams get away with mugging each other and we’re forced to be bored to death for 60+ minutes at a time.

The battle for the playoffs for the Rangers will rage on and Tortorella is likely to get fined for his statements, but for the Rangers, they’re going to have to find a way to generate goals. Brandon Prust’s shorthanded goal today was controversial on its own as it could’ve been ruled that Prust interfered with Roloson on the play. The Rangers need to do better than one or two goals a game. Henrik Lundqvist is fantastic but asking him to be lights out every night is horribly demanding.

Now we’ll wait and see if Tortorella’s yelling earns him some benefit of the doubt in the future from the guys in stripes. Grandstanding and lashing out the way he did can sometimes pay off in the future.