David Quinn really wasn’t happy with the officiating

Sometimes it is impossible to be polite about NHL officiating.

The Rangers’ 3-1 win over the Ducks on Tuesday night at the Garden was one of those nights as coach David Quinn might have held his tongue just enough not to get fined.

In another regrettable performance from referees Frederick L’Ecuyer and Jean Hebert, the first huge mishap was the offsetting double-roughing minors on Vlad Namestnikov and Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf at 14:15 of the first period. As Namestnikov was trying to jam a loose puck in at the left post, Getzlaf bull-rushed him then gave him a little shot with his leg when Namestnikov was down on the ice, then numerous cross-checks once he got up. Namestnikov tried to fight back, never taking his gloves off, and ended up with the much larger Getzlaf on top of him.

“I don’t think Vladdy is looking to fight Getzlaf,” Quinn said. “I guess the instigator fighting rule is just to take up ink in the rule book, apparently.”

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Then with just 2:35 remaining in regulation in what was a 1-1 game, Filip Chytil was called for goalie interference when he drove the net and ended up slamming into Chad Johnson. On the subsequent Ducks power play, Kevin Hayes scored a shorthanded goal with just 40 seconds remaining that stood as the game-winner.

“All I’ll say about that is I think it was justice we got a shorthanded goal,” Quinn said, “and I’ll leave it at that.”

Alex Georgiev needed to make just 14 saves in his eighth start of the season (ninth game), with Henrik Lundqvist backing up. The 22-year-old Georgiev had spent the past two weeks with the Wolf Pack, starting five games while getting back into the groove of playing games before returning Monday.

Lundqvist, 36, was under a barrage of high-danger attempts in Sunday’s game and was visibly upset during and after the loss.

“It’s big picture, too,” Quinn said. “We have a young goalie we think a lot of, he needs to play, we want him to play at this level as much as we can. Giving Hank a mental break and physical break also factors into it. You also have to be prepared that, god-forbid, anything happens to Hank, we’ll have a goalie that’s played and had success at his level and his teammates have confidence in him. There’s a lot that goes into these decisions.”

Brendan Smith returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for three of the past four games. He replaced Freddy Claesson.

Boo Nieves switched to center while Lias Andersson moved to the left wing of the fourth line, and they were quite a bit better as a unit (especially in the first period) than they were Sunday. Yet Quinn limited their ice time over the final two periods, with Nieves finishing with 7:29 total and Andersson just 6:09.