Last night’s Devils-Rangers game that kicked off with a line brawl glued eyes to the TVs and fired up the outrage machine across the hockey landscape. The guy most angry last night, however, was Devils coach Peter DeBoer.
Rangers coach John Tortorella was seen barking at DeBoer before the drop of the puck over the line he put out to start the game and DeBoer didn’t care very much for that at all. Tom Gulitti of Fire & Ice gets the rant from DeBoer over fight night at the Garden.
“I guess in John’s world you can come into our building and start your tough guys, but we can’t do the same in here,” DeBoer said. “He’s either got short-term memory loss or he’s a hypocrite. So it’s one of the other.”
What he’s referring to is the Devils-Rangers game in New Jersey on December 20 that saw an eerily similar starting five that the Rangers put out to start last night’s game to counter the Devils’ big boy unit.
Last night the Devils put out a line of Eric Boulton, Ryan Carter, and Cam Janssen to start the game, something that Tortorella didn’t much care for. He countered by sending out Mike Rupp, Brandon Prust, and Brandon Dubinsky. On the opening faceoff, Dubinsky stepped out and let tough guy defenseman Stu Bickel take his place. Giddy up!
For what it’s worth, Tortorella wouldn’t bite on commenting on last night’s fisticuffs or on what DeBoer had to say.
If you missed the three-way fight last night, check it out here.