New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils coaches lunge into verbal spat -NHL News
A war of words between head coaches of the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils continues to linger on as the National Hockey League (NHL) regular season nears its end.
Both officials have not taken a step backward in their blame-game since its start during the last game between the two teams, both of them calling each other with different names and references.
To the comment from Devils’ Pete DeBoer, Rangers’ John Tortorella reacted strongly and called the former a ‘hypocrite,’ for apparently some controversy on the line-up of tough guys.
Tortorella, while taking another opportunity for rebuttal, asked his Devils’ counterpart to remain ‘shut-up.’
Later, both of them accused each other of suffering from short memory loss and refused to be bogged down from all the talk.
It must be among the few incidences that two officials from opposite sides have prolonged their verbal rivalry for a longer period of time, and when other officials of the teams have wisely refrained from becoming parties in the disputed situation.
In one his latest outbursts, Tortorella said:
"I think Peter needs to jog his memory, as far as the starting lineups that I've put in in his building. And really, basically just shut up. And I need to also. I think the situation last night was disrespectful to players, and I think we took a backwards
step.”
It all started with the accusation that Devils’ coach, DeBoer, had started line-up of his tough players, prompting Tortorella to come up with an equally befitting reply by bringing the line-up of his tough guys to start with.
His reference was the last game of this season that both teams played on Monday, March 19, 2012. The game was won by Rangers with four to two (4-2) goal margin.
Tortorella is alleged to have objected the line-up of tough guys to start and DeBoer accused him of maintaining double standards.
However, according Tortorella, it was DeBoer who had triggered the controversial situation by deliberately calling the line-up when there was no need for any.
He went on to explain that it had prompted him to call his line-up of tough guys.
Tortorella added:
"I get put into a position when he puts a lineup out, that I'm not sure what's going to happen if I put my top players out, so I have to answer the way I need to answer. Just look at the two lineups and some of the things he's done through the games here.”
Both teams hope the situation will calm down with the passage of time.
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