The 2020-21 season was an interesting year for NHL defenseman Tony DeAngelo. It was his fourth season with the New York Rangers, he was coming off a career-high 53-point season and expectations were extremely high to continue producing.
While his play should have been the only thing doing the talking, it was DeAngelo’s mouth that got him in trouble and run out of town midseason.
The free-agent defenseman recently sat down with Jonny Lazarus and Colby Cohen as a guest on Morning Cuppa Hockey, to give his side of the story about how his Rangers tenure concluded. A tenure that had some highs, and some very lows, including the infamous fight with then Rangers’ goaltender Alexandar Georgiev.
“It was a tough game. Georgy struggled. I struggled in the game, we’re playing against Pittsburgh (Jan/30/21), coming down the tunnel, I yelled at Georgy, ‘make a *bleeping save.’ 100%. If I didn’t yell at Georgy, Georgy wasn’t going to turn around and try to do anything. That’s a fact., so obviously I started it, and I wasn’t thinking what happened next was going to happen. That was a surprise to me as Georgy was running hot after the game.”
This is where things take a turn and escalate quickly, as Georgiev, who let in five goals against the Penguins, took matters into his own hands…or mask.
“He turns around and fires a head butt at me. So, you know he has a goalie mask on and I only have the player visor. So, I get a cut on the side of my face. There was nothing to really hit him, so I just hit him quick (swinging his stick), on the goalie mask”, DeAngelo detailed.
“It goes a little bit into the locker room, but nothing really happens, nobody is going to let guys fight in there. Guys break it up, it ends. We’re told the next day, don’t come to the rink. I had a feeling something was going to come there. I thought I was going to get traded to be honest. I wanted to be put on release waivers.”
Even though DeAngelo knew something was likely coming, he was still thrown off by how things played out from the Rangers organization. “Elliotte Friedman broke the news, I didn’t even know yet. I saw through Twitter that I was on waivers”, explained DeAngelo. “To be honest with you, it wasn’t a total shock that I was going to be out of there at that point of the season. The season started off so rocky, and a lot of it being my fault.”
DeAngelo knew the fight in the tunnel shouldn’t have happened and took a lot of accountability for his actions. Looking back, it was obvious he thought it was something the Rangers could have handled differently and he was ready to brush it off and continue on with Georgiev as his goalie.
“Me and Georgy we’re fine. We weren’t the best of buddies, never were the best of buddies, but I think we both would have came back to the rink on Tuesday and everything would have been fine.”
DeAngelo was waived and released by the Rangers and didn’t end up catching on with the Carolina Hurricanes until the following season. Georgiev on the other hand, was traded to the Colorado Avalanche two summers after the incident.
The two crossed paths just one season after the incident and this time no sticks were swung and no headbutts were delivered. “Georgy came up to me when we played the following year in Carolina. Shaking my hand, hugging me. Saying hello, I would say hello to him. It’s just the way hockey guys are.”
For much more from DeAngelo, Lazarus and Cohen, watch here:
