New York Rangers coach Gerard Gallant was not pleased with the Tampa Bay Lightning’s mission to bump and hit Igor Shesterkin in Game 3 on Sunday.
“It doesn’t faze him”, Gallant said via the team’s YouTube channel. “It fazes me more than him. I don’t like it. Hopefully, when we talk to the supervisor tomorrow, they’ll take care of some of that because it wasn’t right.”
In truth, Shesterkin stopped 48 of 51 shots and really didn’t seem to care.
However, there were at least three serious contact plays that Gallant could point to when he speaks with Kay Whitmore, who is the NHL’s Senior Director Of Hockey Operations.
Lightning made it a point to bump Igor Shesterkin
The first incident came when Corey Perry slashed Shesterkin high, which Tampa’s head coach Jon Cooper called a “follow through.” Perry was penalized and Mika Zibanejad scored.
Right after that Riley Nash rushed into the zone and knocked Shesterkin back. He was called for interference with Chris Kreider capitalizing.
Then there was an incident where a Tampa player came in hard with his skates up which could’ve led to serious injury.
Tampa wanted to crowd the net and make it hard on Shesterkin, who has been spectacular in this series.
We’ll see how the refs call it going in Game 4.
New York Rangers Playoff Schedule: ECF vs Tampa Bay Lightning
| GM 1: Rangers 6-2 | 8PM ET | (ESPN, CBC, SN, TVAS) |
| GM 2: Rangers 3-2 | 8PM ET | (ESPN, CBC, SN, TVAS) |
| GM 3: Lightning 3-2 | 3PM ET | (ESPN, CBC, SN, TVAS) |
| GM 4: Tuesday, 6/7 @TB | 8PM ET | (ESPN, CBC, SN, TVAS) |
| GM 5: Thursday, 6/9 @NYR* | 8PM ET | (ESPN, CBC, SN, TVAS) |
| GM 6: Saturday, 6/11 @TB* | 8PM ET | (ESPN, CBC, SN, TVAS) |
| GM 7: Tuesday, 6/14 @NYR* | 8PM ET | (ESPN, CBC, SN, TVAS) |
*If necessary
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