Referees were so bad they actually apologized to the Rangers

PITTSBURGH — It was just atrocious officiating for the first 40 minutes, and the man in charge knew it and apologized.

Referee Francois St. Laurent approached Rangers coach David Quinn after the second period of his team’s 6-5 loss to the Penguins on Sunday afternoon and said sorry for the way the opening 40 minutes had gone, Quinn said.

“I give the ref credit, they did come over to me after the second and said, ‘Listen, I had a bad first two periods. I made some bad calls. I’ll be better in the third,’ ” Quinn said. “I have a lot of respect for that. We’re all human. We all make mistakes.”

The first terrible call came when Kevin Shattenkirk was called for a hook after aptly defending a breakaway on Jake Guentzel at 7:16 of the first period. The refs then missed a high stick from Mats Zuccarello on Evgeni Malkin — even after the latter sold it like he was trying to win an Oscar — followed by an awful holding call on Mika Zibanejad midway through the second period. During that Penguins power play, Kris Letang got away with a slash on Vlad Namestnikov, then Marcus Pettersson scored on the man-advantage to take a 2-1 lead.

“They’re not going out there and trying to make mistakes,” Quinn said of the officials. “That’s why I try to control my emotions. I know it’s a quick game and these guys have hard jobs. Overall, they do a really good job. So I give them a lot of credit for saying that.”

Neal Pionk did not return to the game after he took a high stick to the eye from Sidney Crosby late in the third period, drawing a double-minor.

“Just precautionary reasons, we held him out for the third,” Quinn said.

Defenseman Brady Skjei missed the game after leaving Friday’s game in Buffalo in the second period following an awkward collision into his leg. Quinn said he should be ready to play Tuesday at Raleigh.

“Figured we’d give him another day or two before Tuesday would be the right thing to do,” Quinn said.

Rookie forward Filip Chytil returned after one game as a healthy scratch, playing 9:52 on the third-line wing next to Ryan Strome and Namestnikov.

Winger Jesper Fast missed the game with the flu, according to Quinn. Fast had missed Saturday’s practice, but he rarely practices anymore, getting a lot of “maintenance” days.

Fredrik Claesson made his return from a shoulder injury, playing his first game since Jan. 12. He got 17:30 of ice time paired mostly with Kevin Shattenkirk.

The team went with the lopsided lineup of seven defensemen and 11 forwards for the fourth straight game, but regular blueliner Brendan Smith played the first two periods on a fourth line with Boo Nieves and Connor Bickley.