Tortorella Takes Shots at Devils, Defends Prust John Tortorella stood out again at a playoff news conference. Only this time it was because of his feistiness toward the New Jersey Devils and not for his brevity and contentiousness with the media. The New York Rangers coach defended forward Brandon Prust, who could be facing a suspension because of an elbow to the head of New Jersey defenseman Anton Volchenkov, and accused the Devils of embellishing to draw penalties against the Rangers in the Eastern Conference finals. We tell our players, 'Don't stay down on the ice. Get up,'" Tortorella said Sunday. I'll leave it at that. If we want to start discussing officials with the media, I have a long list here. He then began to air it. Tortorella said the Devils set picks during power plays to set up shots for Ilya Kovalchuk and prevent the Rangers from getting into position to block them. He added that forward Dainius Zubrus elbowed New York defenseman Anton Stralman on Saturday, and said top New Jersey forward Zach Parise launched himself into another defenseman, Michael Del Zotto. Neither of those players, nor Prust, was penalized for their hits during the Rangers' 3-0 win that gave New York a 2-1 lead in the East finals. Kovalchuk scored a power-play goal in Game 2 that the Rangers say was made possible by a pick. "We're trying not to get picked," Rangers forward Brad Richards said. Sometimes you get picked. We're trying to let the refs know and have them look at it. Prust had a chance to present his version of the hit during a telephone hearing with NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan on Sunday morning. "I was able to talk quite a bit and explain where I was coming from," Prust said. I was just trying to get into that check, I was at the end of a shift, just skating over for a routine check, I just wanted to rub him out and get off the ice. He bailed out of it and turned and kind of went low. It's just kind of a reaction. When you're off-balance, your arms go up, I didn't want to do a face plant into the boards. It was just kind of a reaction, I had no intent to hit him in the head there. There was nothing vicious about it. Prust's elbow connected with the back of Volchenkov's helmet near the boards at 2:38 of the second period. Volchenkov stayed down for a bit, but remained in the game and didn't miss a shift. Game 4 is Monday night in New Jersey, and the Rangers might have to take the ice without Prust. "I have no clue really," Prust said when asked if he thought he would be suspended. I know I've played a lot of professional hockey games and never been suspended before, I don't even think I had an elbowing penalty this year, so I'm sure they'll take that into account. I didn't even really feel that elbow. I went to the bench and thought maybe I caught him with my knee, maybe charley-horsed him. I didn't hit him that hard, I think I just kind of grazed his helmet a little bit, and it stood up. For sure he's trying to get a penalty when your helmet comes up. It's just natural to try to sell it for a power play. Not surprisingly, Devils coach Peter DeBoer saw it quite differently. Headhunting. Plain and simple," he said Saturday. Prust wasn't fazed a bit by DeBoer's characterization. "I'm not really too worried about what he has to say," Prust said. He's not my coach. This is just the latest banter between the Devils and Rangers and their respective head coaches.