New York Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault laughed and said "boys will be boys" Thursday after his Blueshirts skated to a 2-1 overtime victory over the Lightning down in Tampa.
His quip was in reply to a question about an early third-period sequence in which a squirt of water led to a response and altercation.
However, the NHL Department of Player Safety was not as amused as the Rangers bench boss. On Friday, three players -- Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos and Alex Killorn, and New York's Kevin Hayes -- were fined $5,000 each for unsportsmanlike conduct, even though none of them actually received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the game itself.
NHL Power Rankings: Lightning sit on top, Rangers struggling near bottom
Hayes squirted water on Killorn from the Rangers bench 3:01 into the third period, prior to a faceoff right in front of him. Killorn responded by jabbing his stick over the boards and into Hayes as he sat on the bench before New York's J.T. Miller shoved Killorn to start an on-ice altercation in which Rangers defenseman Steven Kampfer and Lightning forward J.T. Brown drew five-minute fighting majors. Officials also sent Killorn to the sin bin, two minutes for slashing.
Kevin Hayes squirts Alex Killorn with water from the bench, Killorn takes exception pic.twitter.com/ndxZ7hK8LG
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) November 3, 2017
Hayes was not penalized, nor was Stamkos when he, too, squirted the Rangers with water from the bench.
Miller and the Rangers had the last laugh when he beat Andrei Vasilevsky 1:19 into overtime as New York won its first road game of the season.
J.T. MILLER
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) November 3, 2017
OT WINNER pic.twitter.com/Dp6WdMOUPF
The five grand fine won't knock the smile off Hayes' face as he laughed at Killorn from the bench and still chuckled about incident after the game.