Rangers, Canadiens try to win battle of mind games

NEW YORK -- They began the moment this Eastern Conference Final between the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers was set and continue unabated leading into Game 4 of the series Sunday at Madison Square Garden (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, CBC, RDS).

The Rangers might lead the best-of-7 series 2-1, but the count on mind games won by either team is not quite as clear.

And it seems nearly as important.

As the Canadiens and Rangers each took to the ice for practice Saturday, what was said in the dressing rooms and on the podium was of far greater interest.

Rangers coach Alain Vigneault was up first, and he did not disappoint.

Vigneault refused to rule out center Derek Stepan playing in Game 4, even though Stepan underwent surgery on his broken jaw a day earlier and was still in a hospital as Vigneault was speaking.

"I would say unlikely," is as far as Vigneault would go when discussing Stepan's status.

The Canadiens took it a step farther, with several players considering it a given that Stepan will play and one even questioning whether he actually broke his jaw.

Stepan sustained the injury early in the first period of Game 3 when he was hit late by Canadiens forward and former teammate Brandon Prust, which cost Prust a two-game suspension. Stepan left the game briefly but returned, only to have Vigneault announce the next day that he had a broken jaw and was going to have surgery.

Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher was asked Saturday if he would be surprised if Stepan played in Game 4.

"No," he replied. "He got up and he was yapping and yelling. So I'm sure the jaw isn't hurting too much."

Vigneault also took advantage of an opportunity for a second day in a row to note how no penalty was called on the Prust hit and how the Rangers should have had a five-minute power play instead of a later incident where Rangers forward Dan Carcillo wound up being penalized and eventually suspended for abuse of an official, a suspension he has decided to appeal.

The validity of that point as well was questioned by the Canadiens.

"I think it seems a little fishy to me, it seems like a little bit of a game," center Danny Briere said. "All the complaints about starting the game where they should have been on a five-minute power play and it would have changed the game and all that stuff.

"The refs are trying to do their best, but [Vigneault] should look at his own team: [the Rangers] got away with a lot of stuff too. Ryan McDonagh's a great defenseman, but I haven't seen anyone slash as much as he has since Chris Pronger.

"It goes both ways, and it's part of the game and it happens. But I think it's all about trying to position himself towards the referee."

The fun did not stop there.

During Canadiens practice, coach Michel Therrien noticed that Rangers assistant Ulf Samuelsson and video coach Jerry Dineen were watching his team practice. First he sent his assistant coach Jean-Jacques Daigneault, who used to coach in the Rangers organization with the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League, to ask them to leave.

When they didn't, Therrien went himself and vocally asked the men to leave, which they eventually did.

"There's an agreement between the teams and the managers that the coaches aren't allowed to watch practice between games," Therrien explained. "It's out of respect for the coaches who want to make adjustments. It's always been the case. When we saw the assistant coaches watching our practice, Jean-Jacques Daigneault went to tell them and they didn't seem to understand. The second time I went, and they didn't seem to understand. The third time around, you had to send your message.

"It's a gentleman's agreement that teams usually respect."

If indeed that "gentleman's agreement" was reached by Rangers general manager Glen Sather and Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin, the Rangers' coaches were not the only ones not respecting it: Sather was in the stands watching practice as well.

"Yeah I saw it," Canadiens captain Brian Gionta said. "It's part of the thing when you come into a series, when teams talk, you discuss things like that."

As if that wasn't enough, Therrien took it a step further during his own session with the media when he took to the podium.

Therrien was asked if he expected to see Stepan in the lineup, and unlike his players, he had his doubts. He said he consulted with the Canadiens' doctors and that they considered it risky to play a game two days after surgery to repair a broken jaw. But Therrien then began talking about Derick Brassard, who is expected to return to the Rangers lineup for the first time since he was injured in Game 1 on a hit by Canadiens defenseman Mike Weaver.

"We expect that a guy like Brassard will be back in the lineup, an important player for them who's been good in the playoffs," Therrien said. "We know exactly where he is injured, because the hockey world is a small world. When we know where a player is injured we need to assure ourselves that we play solid."

This is the second time in these Stanley Cup Playoffs that Therrien has told reporters he knows exactly where a player is injured, the first being in reference to Tampa Bay Lightning rookie Ondrej Palat during the Canadiens' first-round series.

Therrien's reference to the hockey world being a small world may have been an underhanded dig at Vigneault, who said the same thing after Game 2 when he noted that the Rangers had an idea that the Canadiens would be playing Dustin Tokarski in goal after Carey Price was injured and lost for the series in Game 1.

The verbal jawing from either side of this series is starting to get heated, as is the hockey. After two days off, these teams will go at each other again Sunday and it could very well be the most emotional game of the series to date.

"When you play the same players game after game," Briere said, "it's normal that at a certain point you get sick of seeing them.

"I think we're there now."