Ryan Lindgren does his pest work bugging Rangers' opponents

Ryan Lindgren may be the least heralded of the Rangers’ Kiddie Korps, but the rugged defenseman seems to be making a name for himself as a pest whom opponents hate to play against.

In Sunday’s game against the Boston Bruins, the team that drafted him, Lindgren had a couple of run-ins with forward Brad Marchand. After the game, Marchand disparaged Lindgren by saying the rookie won’t be playing in the NHL for very long.

“He’s not a player that’s going to have a very long career,’’ Marchand said of Lindgren, with whom he denied having any previous beef. “He’s a good, steady defenseman, but there’s nothing that’s come up in the past. All the best to him, I hope he does a great job. But I can’t see it.’’

The two first tangled midway in the first period. Lindgren attempted to land a big body check on Marchand at the boards in front of the Rangers’ bench. Marchand, known to be one of the bigger pests in the league himself, slipped most of the hit and then shoved his glove in Lindgren’s face, which prompted Lindgren to throw a couple of gloved punches at Marchand. Lindgren ended up with a roughing penalty in that sequence.

Then, with the Bruins leading 1-0 late in the second period, after Rangers goaltender Alexandar Georgiev made a save and covered the puck to cause a stoppage in play, Bruins center Patrice Bergeron cross-checked Lindgren. Lindgren — whose face was bloodied earlier in the game when it was cut by a high stick from David Krejci — cross-checked Bergeron back.

Then Marchand, who’d been sniffing around looking for a rebound, came over and cross-checked Lindgren in the back — hard — and knocked him to the ice. Pavel Buchnevich came flying in to cross-check Marchand in the back — hard — and knocked him to the ice.

Marchand got the only penalty in that sequence, but the Bruins ended up scoring a shorthanded goal.

Lindgren, who turned 22 last week, has had a solid rookie campaign, recording one goal and nine assists and collecting 39 penalty minutes in 48 games. He has played to a plus/minus of plus-8.

He also has had a few run-ins with some notable players. He has exchanged shoves with, among others, the Penguins’ Evgeny Malkin and the Maple Leafs’ John Tavares. Last Tuesday, he battled with the Jets’ Patrik Laine while trying to move the massive Laine from in front of the Rangers’ net.

After that episode, he swore he isn’t deliberately going after big-name players.

“No, no, I’m not going to try to go out of my way to do things like that,’’ he said. “But if someone’s in front of [the net], and trying to stand there, I’ll try to move them and give them some shots and make it hard for them to stand there.’’

He did admit that he tries to annoy big-name players whenever and however he can.

“You like to try to maybe get under the skin of the top players on the other team, and you get a chance to maybe give them a shot or two when they’re in front,’’ he said. “I think maybe you can get them off their game a little bit. So yeah, I’ve got no problem doing things like that.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.