Allegations were made by players on the Rangers bench that Matt Carkner flicked blood at them while skating to the dressing room following his first-period fight with Derek Boogaard.
“He just skated by, wiped his brow twice, maybe three times and just flicked (the blood) at us. I don’t know why, but that’s what happened,” said Brian Boyle. “I was really surprised,”
Carkner, who was cut over the left eye, stated rather unconvincingly he didn’t know why he was given a misconduct along with his fighting major.
“Maybe I made a gesture or something like that,” he said. “The (linesman) said he had to give me a 10 and I’m like, ‘Why?’ He said they were complaining. I don’t know, I just got in a fight with a big guy and the adrenalin was rushing. I tried to get off the ice and they were chirping me.”
Carkner denied flicking blood.
“No, no,” he said. “I don’t even know who was bleeding at the time. I saw Boogaard was bleeding on the ice. I was just trying to skate off and get our guys going.”
Rangers coach John Tortorella wouldn’t comment on the incident, but said he thought Boogaard suffered a broken nose.
