TAMPA – His once-broken neck is still aching from Sunday’s Darius Kasparaitis elbow.
That’s not all Devils winger Grant Marshall is sore about. Marshall says the NHL is to blame for letting the Ranger defenseman remain loose to injure Buffalo’s Tim Connolly Tuesday.
“I think they turned a blind eye to that one, Colin Campbell,” Marshall said yesterday. “Connolly wouldn’t be out six weeks. Colin Campbell’s not doing his job.”
NHL VP Campbell insisted that close inspection showed both Kasparaitis hits were legal.
“At first look at the tape, I can live with the referee’s call. It certainly looked like an elbow to [Marshall’s] head,” Campbell told The Post. “But when you examine it from all the angles, overhead and behind the net, it was our determination that it was his shoulder, more exactly the numbers on his shoulder, that made contact with Grant Marshall’s head and face.
“It wasn’t an elbow,” Campbell said.
Marshall sat out Tuesday’s 4-0 victory at Nassau Coliseum with a stiff neck but was back in action when the Devils lost 1-0 in overtime to the Lightning here last night.
“It doesn’t help when they’re saying it wasn’t a bad hit,” Marshall said. “I just thought it was a cowardice hit.”
Two nights later, Kasparaitis hip-checked Connolly into the boards, injuring Connolly’s knee.
“It was a legal hit,” Campbell said.
Marshall suffered his broken neck in 1990, when crosschecked into the boards from behind during his first year of junior hockey.