There was referee Tim Peel over at the Rangers’ bench, just screaming bloody murder at Derick Brassard.
“It’s just a long story, and he took it personally,” Brassard said of the altercation, which happened with eight minutes left in the third period of what would be a 4-1 Rangers win over the Senators on Sunday night at the Garden. “I was trying to be friendly, ask him what he’s up to. It was kind of weird.”
Brassard scored two goals in the game, but he wasn’t willing to divulge exactly what had led to the confrontation.
“Tim’s one of best refs in the league, he’s been around a long time,” Brassard said. “I have a lot of respect for every ref, ever. I don’t want to be disrespectful. He took it the wrong way, I think. I was just kind of shocked.”
Coach Alain Vigneault was right there to hear what was happening, and when asked about it after the game, Vigneault smiled and said it was all “R-rated.”
“I think it was just a misunderstanding,” Vigneault said. “I like Timmy a lot and I think Brass likes him too, so it was just a little misunderstanding. Boys will be boys sometimes, right?”
Vigneault kept Tanner Glass in the lineup for the third straight game since he was called up on Wednesday. That made Emerson Etem a healthy scratch even though he is apparently over the sickness that held him from the previous two games.
“He was going to play, then he got sick,” Vigneault said of Etem before the game. “You’re not supposed to lose your job through injury or sickness, but at the end of the day, Glasser came in and played well, so we decided to keep him in the lineup.”
Vigneault juggled his lines quite a bit, moving Oscar Lindberg into the middle between Chris Kreider and Rick Nash, while Kevin Hayes slid out of the middle and into Nash’s regular spot on the left next to Brassard and Mats Zuccarello.
That left units of J.T. Miller-Dominic Moore-Jesper Fast and Glass-Jarret Stoll-Viktor Stalberg.
“I thought Dom’s line and Oscar’s line started off a lot with the puck, they were good on faceoffs, and I like how they moved it,” Vigneault said. “And I thought Brass and Zuccey and Hayesy, as the game went on, they got a little more comfortable.”
Vigneault said the plan is still for the Rangers to call up an extra defenseman Tuesday or Wednesday to meet them in Vancouver at the beginning of their three-game trip. The delay is to save money under the salary cap, and the six healthy defensemen are the ones whom Vigneault wants to play.
The coach said the decision on who it will be was likely to be made in conjunction with general manager Jeff Gorton sometime after the game on Sunday night.