Cal Clutterbuck had to laugh.
“Oh yeah,” the Islanders forward said when asked if he saw Tanner Glass, the Rangers’ physical forward, doing the chicken dance in his direction late in the second period of the Isles’ 3-1 win on Thursday night at Barclays Center.
“He was doing it at me and not Marty,” Clutterbuck said, referring to his team’s enforcer, Matt Martin. “So that should tell you everything you need to know about that.”
In what was a very intense atmosphere filled with dislike and angst, Clutterbuck had drawn the ire of Glass and the Blueshirts soon after he tussled with Mats Zuccarello behind the play. Glass’ intention with the motion was to call Clutterbuck a chicken for not fighting, and Clutterbuck’s comment meant that if Glass wanted to fight, he should have looked at Martin and not him.
When play stopped, Martin and Rangers rookie defenseman Dylan McIlrath tried to fight, but the referees wouldn’t let it happen with 1.5 seconds remaining in the period, instead calling both for unsportsmanlike conduct.
“There is dislike, there’s no question,” Clutterbuck said. “Geographically, and with the way the fans are in this area, in New York in general, it’s really loaded. It’s a little bit of gasoline thrown on the fire.”
Clutterbuck also jawed with Rangers trainer Jim Ramsay from the bench, but he said it’s just because the two “go back a long way.”
McIlrath was playing for Dan Girardi, who was forced to miss the game with a laceration on his right thumb suffered in Monday’s 2-1 win over the Bruins.
The 6-foot-5, 220-pound McIlrath was called for roughing early in the third period when he took exception to Brock Nelson poking at goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who had covered the puck. It was a questionable penalty call — especially in the context of such a heated game — but Rangers coach Alain Vigneault would not comment, only saying he had not seen the replay.
The Islanders were already without two of their top-four defensemen again, as Travis Hamonic (lower-body injury) missed his third straight and Johnny Boychuk (upper-body injury) missed his sixth. That left young blueliner Adam Pelech, 21, in for his fifth straight, and he took a Derek Stepan skate to the face with 7:29 remaining in the first.
Pelech didn’t return for the rest of the period, but was stitched up and played solid the rest of the game, logging 16:09 and finishing with an assist and a plus-2 rating.
“I thought some of our ‘D’ played really well,” coach Jack Capuano said. “Pelech was poised.”
Rangers center Derick Brassard had a “maintenance day” in missing Wednesday’s practice, but was able to play. As anticipated, that made 24-year-old Swedish rookie Oscar Lindberg a healthy scratch.