The Ottawa Senators were pounding the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 Sunday in Game 3 of a first-round playoff matchup when every player on the ice — yes, two entire lines — decided they hated each other.

What ensued was a scene straight out of the movie “Slap Shot.” Nine game misconducts were doled out, including a total of 236 penalty minutes (Ottawa, 107; Montreal, 129). Ottawa won the game 6-1 and holds a 2-1 series lead over Montreal.

Here you go …

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City officials announced today that the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx will become the world’s largest indoor ice facility.

The planned Kingsbridge National Ice Center will have nine indoor ice rinks that will be open year round, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

It will also include a 5,000-seat rink for national and international hockey and skating events.

“The Kingsbridge Armory will now have an interior program befitting its iconic exterior architecture,” Bloomberg said.

The armory, which is a landmark, has been vacant since 1996.

The city expects 2 million people to visit the rink each year.

Right now, the city hosts seven year-round ice rinks, and none are in the Bronx, Bloomberg said.

Added Rangers NHL Hall of Famer Mark Messier, “As a New Yorker, I know it will also change this city, providing invaluable educational and athletic opportunity to thousands of young people.”

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The Rangers earned one point, but they left another on the table.

New York dropped a 3-2 decision to the Capitals in the shootout Sunday night at the Garden.

“I’m thinking about points. We get a point,” head coach John Tortorella said. “Would we like to have two? Yes. But we didn’t get it.”

Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin scored for the Capitals during both the game and skills competition. Ovechkin finished with a goal and an assist. Braden Holtby made 30 saves.

Ovechkin slipped the puck between the post and Lundqvist’s pad for the first shootout goal. Backstrom ripped a laser that beat Lundqvist glove side for the game-winner.

“I only stopped two-of-four in the shootout,” said Henrik Lundqvist, who made 22 saves in the first 65 minutes. “I have to be better. You face really good players. I think the last one was a really good shot but Ovechkin, [I] felt like I had him but I didn’t get the stick down.”

Despite having lost consecutive games, the Rangers moved to eighth in the East. Arron Asham and Derek Stepan scored for the Rangers. Stepan scored the Rangers’ lone goal in the shootout.

“I’m not even thinking about playoffs,” Tortorella said.

One of the themes that has marked this Rangers campaign has been slow starts. Last night was no different as Washington jumped out to a 2-0 lead on the power of goals from Backstrom and Ovechkin in a span of 2:09.

“After they got the first one, we were stunned a little bit. We just kind of sat back and let them play,” Dan Girardi said. “Obviously we want two points but we need to get any point we can at this stage. But there are a lot of good things we can take from today.”

Following Ovechkin’s goal, the Garden denizens booed the Blueshirts viciously. But by the end of the period, the 17,200 in attendance were delirious as the teams went into intermission tied at 2-2.

Asham began the comeback with an off-the-rush goal to cut the deficit in half 14:12 into the period. The goal was Asham’s second of the season. Stepan tied the game with 1:57 left on a shot that pinballed off Holtby’s stick.

“I thought after the first 10 minutes we responded well — getting two goals and tying it after the first,” Ryan Callahan said. “We had chances in the second and third. We just couldn’t find the next one and eventually they did in the shootout.”

The game remained tied despite the Rangers having a 25-10 advantage in shots spanning the final two regulation periods and overtime.

“We just closed out defensively,” Girardi said. “We tried to keep everything to the outside, blocking shots like we always do, getting through the neutral zone and not turning any pucks over. When we are playing down [in] their end, it limits their shots.”

The second period was not nearly as wild as the first because the goaltenders stepped to the forefront. Lundqvist turned away all four Capital shots he faced, while Holtby stopped the nine shots he faced.

While the majority of shots the goaltenders saw were harmless, each team had a chance to break the deadlock in the second period. Marian Gaborik missed on a breakaway backhander with 8:19 left in the second, while Lundqvist stopped consecutive shots off the sticks of Mike Ribeiro and Karl Alzner with a minute left in the period.

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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Among the strongest advocates for the elimination of fighting in the game is   The Hockey News columnist Adam Proteau. He is the author of a soon-to-be-released book that challenges the NHL to clean up its on-ice product titled “Fighting The Good Fight: Why On-Ice Violence Is Killing Hockey.”
“It’s what I consider the exceptionalism that says ‘We’re different from all those other sports.’ The NFL, where guys will grab each other’s testicles in a scrum, somehow that’s less manly or less forceful than what happens in the NHL. I don’t buy it,” Proteau told Metro by phone this week. “It’s an unnatural part of hockey.”

The website Hockeyfights.com reports there have been 34 fights in the first 74 games this year, and it projects that there will be 565 fights by the end of the 2011-12 regular season. Moreover, there have been 3,754 fights in the 7,448 regular season games that have been contested, as of this writing, since the lockout. That works out to an average of one fight every two games.

“Guys are bigger, stronger, faster every year. You take away where the guys can police the game themselves then it’s going to be a bunch of stick work,” Islanders enforcer Trevor Gilles said following practice at Nassau Coliseum Tuesday. “It’s important that guys know that they have to be held accountable for taking liberties with star players.”
 
His words echoes those of Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke at the NHL Board of Governors meeting in June. When asked by Metro about the state of fighting in the NHL, Burke replied, “Even people like me, who are pro-fighting, are happy with where fighting is and don’t want to see its role expanded. The place fighting has in our game is that players do self-police.”
 
It is a rationale that Proteau vehemently disputes.
 
“I don’t buy any of that Brian Burke talk and I like Brian. He’s part of the hockey establishment that believes hockey is exceptional [compared to other major professional sports],” Proteau said. “I don’t buy the self-policing angle either because it’s always the so-called policeman in the game they’re the ones that wind up snapping, whether it’s Trevor Gillies or Chris Simon in the past, or some people might say Matt Cooke is a policeman. Derek Boogaard, when he was alive, he was certainly a policeman. They’re the ones that go off and take a baseball swing or stomp down on somebody’s skate.
 
“I just think this idea that there’s this Wild West romanticized ethical code that all hockey players live by is nonsense.”
 
Last Feb. 11, the Penguins and Islanders played in a game where they combined for 342 penalty minutes, 15 fighting majors and 10 game misconduct penalties in the Islanders’ 9-3 win. 

It was a game that left a black eye on the NHL. 

“I don’t think many people really thought it was right or it was hockey; obviously it was a game that had a lot of emotion. I guess that’s the way it kind of worked out,” said Islanders center John Tavares. “I think that game is in its own kind of category. Obviously, that was a little bit over the top and really
wasn’t much of a hockey game after the first half.”

While Tavares acknowledged the public outcry that emanated in the aftermath of the now-infamous game, he views the enforcer as someone who is in the sport for the foreseeable future.
 
“I think your linemates create you more [scoring] opportunities, but the ability an enforcer has, to make sure you’re not being taken advantage of in certain situations, is a big role. They’re there to protect you in a sense,” Tavares said. “Fighting is part of the game and I think we all believe it should stay. I think [if] you ask other players, for the most part, believe in it as well. Obviously not everyone is a fan of it but it’s been in the game for so long.”

Follow Metro’s NHL writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman for coverage of all the area teams.

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