Capitals coach calls out Rangers for delay tactics: ‘I felt sorry for refs’

NEW YORK – Barry Trotz has coached over 1,200 games in the National Hockey League. He’s acutely aware of the little tricks teams can pull to buy some extra time for rest or to slow the tempo of a game down.

The Washington Capitals coach said the New York Rangers performed many of those tricks in their win over the Caps on Tuesday night.

“I felt sorry for the referees. They got that down pat,” said Trotz of the Rangers, who defeated Washington, 5-2, moving into first place in the Metro Division.

“They’ve got some veteran players who all of a sudden have equipment problems, and all those things. It was a tough night for the referees. They were doing everything they could.”

The Rangers burned their timeout at 6:17 of the second period after three consecutive icing calls.

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The Capitals out-possessed the Rangers by a wide margin in the second period – an incredible 80-percent Corsi 5v5 – and into the third. So Trotz said the Rangers got creative in catching their breath.

“That’s a good veteran team, doing whatever they could – from 10 guys on the bench jumping all on the ice to ‘there’s something wrong with my visor’ to ‘there’s something wrong with my skate’ to ‘my stick’s not right’ – it was tough,” he said.

“Tough for the referees.”

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