TAMPA – His once-broken neck is still aching from Sunday’s Darius Kasparaitis elbow. That’s not all Devils winger Grant Marshall is sore about.
Marshall says the NHL is to blame for letting the Rangers defenseman remain loose to injure Buffalo’s Tim Connolly Tuesday.
“I think they turned a blind eye to that one, Colin Campbell,” Marshall said yesterday in reference to the NHL vice president. “Connolly wouldn’t be out six weeks.
“Colin Campbell’s not doing his job.”
Marshall sat out Tuesday’s 4-0 victory over the Islanders with a stiff neck, but he was expected to be back in action last night when the Devils visited the Lightning here.
“It doesn’t help when they’re saying it wasn’t a bad hit,” Marshall said. “I just thought it was a cowardice hit.”
Marshall absorbed what appeared to be, was called as and he says was an elbow from Kasparaitis, who insisted he caught Marshall with his shoulder.
Campbell agreed with Kasparaitis.
“At first look at the tape, I can live with the referee’s call. It certainly looked like an elbow to the head,” Campbell told The Post. “But when you examine it from all the angles, overhead and behind the net, it was our determination that it was his shoulder, more exactly the numbers on his shoulder, that made contact with Grant Marshall’s head and face.
“It wasn’t an elbow,” Campbell said.
After Kasparaitis was ejected from the game, the Devils failed to score on the five-minute power play, and their winning streak was snapped at nine.
Two nights later, Kasparaitis hip-checked Connolly into the boards, injuring Connolly’s knee.
“It was a legal hit,” Campbell said.
Marshall suffered his broken neck in 1990, when cross-checked into the boards from behind during his first year of junior hockey. Now 32, that injury ran through his mind as he was on the ice after being flattened.
“You’re going to have that for the rest of your life after breaking your neck,” Marshall said. “I don’t think I worry about it, but I think about it.”
The Devils put Marshall through a battery of tests to determine whether there was a concussion, or neck injury, and they said he received a clean bill.
“It’s fine. I’m ready to go,”Marshall said.
The Devils, who visit the Panthers tonight, also were relieved that Martin Brodeur said he suffered no further swelling in the left knee he injured in Tuesday’s shutout. Brodeur missed six games early in the season from a right knee sprain, an injury that affected his play.
“It was similar to what I had on the other knee, but way less,” Brodeur said. “I still feel it a little bit, but it doesn’t prevent me from playing.”
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Devils had allowed only 19 goals in 11 games before last night . . . Pat Burns and Larry Robinson were both expected to attend last night’s game . . . Lightning had points in four (3-0-1) straight and were 4-1-1 in six . . . Lightning had not allowed a power-play goal five straight, killing 17 penalties.