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More Rangers-Oilers: Christensen talked to, Alex Burrows supports Sean Avery, Smid will know better next time

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With all the madness that happened yesterday at MSG, some things got lost in the shuffle here because of that. While no one was suspended for anything that happened in yesterday’s on-ice fracas, there was some post-game fallout through all this. Rangers forward Erik Christensen ruffled some feathers internally with the Rangers after the game yesterday for referring to Sean Avery’s punch on Oilers Ladislav Smid as being a “sucker punch.” Larry Brooks of the New York Post brings us the quote from the Rangers center.

Blueshirts center Erik Christensen told Edmonton TV it looked as if Avery “sucker-punched” Smid. “It looked to me like he suckered him; I’m not going to deny it,” Christensen then told The Post. “I mean, everyone could see.’'

You can almost picture Christensen saying right after that, “Right guys? I mean, come on... I know you saw it too... Right? Guys?!” Rangers coach John Tortorella addressed this potential locker room nightmare today and as Andrew Gross shares, Christensen says that the whole matter was handled internally. You have to think that Erik Christensen got a nice talk from head coach John Tortorella about throwing one’s teammate under the bus like that.

Oddly enough, Sean Avery does have one supporter out there in the NHL world regarding all of this and you may not be overly shocked to learn that Vancouver’s Alex Burrows has his full support on pummeling Ladislav Smid.
“I didn’t mind it [Avery jumping Smid]. I don’t really like Ladislav either so I thought it was a pretty good thing that somebody gives it to him.”

Perhaps we were all unaware that pests in the NHL are all part of some sort of Guild of Calamitous Intent amongst hockey players. Burrows’ bizarre defense of Avery is really something else, but if there’s something both Avery and perhaps Burrows might be happy to know, it’s that he’s learned a lesson out of all this. Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal shares with us Smid’s regretful take on the happenings yesterday.

He admits he didn’t handle it well, which is why he got drilled in the side of the head by the sneaky Avery and might not play Wednesday when the Chicago Blackhawks are at Rexall Place. He didn’t practise Monday morning. He might have a concussion, although nobody’s publicly saying that. He does have a sore neck. Also a badly bruised ego after not watching Avery closely enough seconds after Avery had driven Colin Fraser hard into the side boards..

“It was a cheap play by him but I made a mistake. You can’t do that with him,” said Smid.

“I asked him to go three times and he said ‘next shift.’''

The next shift became the next right hand from Avery.

A tough lesson learned for the rather fight-inexperienced Smid. Then again, with the fits he apparently gives to Alex Burrows, perhaps he should know better than to mess with the Guild of Irascible Forwards.