TAMPA, Fla. — Maybe it’s a little bit easier for an admission like this when you’re speaking under the Broadway Hat.
Tanner Glass wore the Rangers’ celebratory black fedora after Wednesday night’s 5-2 win over the Lightning at Amalie Arena. He had a highlight-reel play that was so inscrutably his own, nailing 6-foot-7, 243-pound former Ranger Brian Boyle over the boards and into the Blueshirts’ bench late in the second period.
The monstrous blow drew an interference call, as Boyle had never touched the puck rimming around the boards and it was all the way up near the red line when Glass made contact. The Lightning actually tied the game, 2-2, on the ensuing man-advantage, but the win made the hit seem worthwhile.
“I would probably do it 10 times out of 10,” Glass said, “but I still think it’s a penalty.”
Boyle was upset about the hit, and Glass even thought Boyle made a good play.
“If he gets the puck, the hit is probably worse,” Glass said. “He smartly leaves the puck and braces himself for the hit, and that’s the result.”
As expected, Kevin Hayes was a healthy scratch for the first time this season. There was some question earlier in the day if he might play, as coach Alain Vigneault said Chris Kreider was considered questionable having come down with “a flu bug.”
Yet Kreider took warmups, was good enough to play, and Hayes sat.
Tuesday was Vigneault’s evisceration of the 23-year-old Hayes, when he questioned his work ethic and even said management might have “overestimated his possibilities.” The coach hardly backed down on Wednesday.
“I think anybody that read the [press] clippings, I think we were pretty clear on our expectations about him,” Vigneault said. “He needs to respond. It’s that simple.”
Defenseman Dylan McIlrath was a healthy scratch for the second straight game, the result of both Dan Giardi and Kevin Klein coming back from injury.
“I was aware of the situation, so it didn’t really catch me by surprise that I was going to come out of the lineup,” the 23-year-old said. “Obviously, I thought I was playing pretty good hockey, so it’s tough coming out of the lineup. But it’s an opportunity for me to work out in the gym, get stronger, be a good teammate.”
Vigneault said he wasn’t too concerned with the players’ off-day on Thursday in the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area, even though it’s New Year’s Eve.
“We’ve got a pretty good, mature group,” Vigneault said. “They’re like any other person in society — it’s New Year’s, you celebrate a little. I don’t see nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, I like the fact that if they do go out, I’m pretty sure they’re all going to go out together.”
After the win, when the team was about to fly directly to the east coast of the state, Vigneault hardly even wanted to think about the next game.
“Before that, we’ve got the New Year’s,” he said. “So we’re going to take care of New Year’s [Thursday], we’re going to have a good time, then get ready for a good practice on the first then play on the second.”