Rangers fans attend a number of the Russian’s games at the Bolshoy Ice Dome in Sochi
Rangers fans were so angry over a remark from Russian forward Artemi Panarin at the beginning of the season that they surrounded the captain and tossed his glove at Brad Marchand.
It occurred on 18 January when the Chicago Blackhawks’ scorer was asked about remarks that followed their Winter Olympics campaign in South Korea.
Panarin told a Russian newspaper “there is a mixed situation on the ice between us Russian players and their fans”.
Fans at the Rangers-Boston Bruins NHL game at Madison Square Garden reacted by throwing ice fountains and eventually tossing Marchand’s glove.
The winger told ESPN it was a “traumatic experience”, but declined to talk further about the incident.
It is understood Marchand was not physically hurt during the episode, although he felt “a bit shaken up”, but his glove was dinged and it is unclear whether the damage will affect him.
In January, Rangers fans also angrily threw sticks at Panarin after a past game in which the Russian scored a hat-trick and that, he said, had prompted “a lot of idiots” to come up to him “and throw sticks, even cheap ones at me”.