In the third period of Thursday night's 4-3 New York Rangers OT win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, Ruslan Fedotenko was defending a pass when Tampa's Dominic Moore gave him a hard shoulder hit that appeared to connect with Fedotenko's jaw (s/t Kukla):
Moore received two minutes for roughing. Fedotenko didn't return to the game. The Rangers, via Katie Strang of ESPN New York, were pissed:
"We're still pretty angry about that," said center Brian Boyle, who tallied the game-tying goal in the third period. "That was a really, really dirty play."
"It's us doing it to each other," [Brad] Richards said. "I'm pretty sure he knew what he was doing. If we want to keep doing it to each other, we're going to keep having problems. It's idiotic."
Strong words by Brad Richards which will no doubt bite him on the ass the next time a Rangers player is suspended for a head-shot ?
From the Tampa Bay Times, Moore had his say as well:
Moore said he was "competing for body position" while "trying to make myself available for a shot. I guess (Fedotenko) wasn't ready for that."
Moore, called for roughing, said the hit was not in retaliation for Fedotenko running him into the boards earlier in the period: "I didn't know it was him until after." The league will look at Moore's hit for supplemental discipline.
Whether or not you believe that last part with regard to intent, we do believe that first statement: He was trying to establish position for a scoring opportunity.
Trouble is, his means to that end appeared to be a shoulder to The Tank's turret, which could give us our first Shanaban since that 3-game suspension that gave Alex Ovechkin an education: Hanging at Miami Beach is better then freezing in Ottawa for a weekend!
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