New York Post – New York Rangers forward Brandon Prust has been caught red-lipped. After we reported that he’s been getting cozy with “Gossip Girl” star Michelle Trachtenberg (right), his beautiful girlfriend of a year, Marie-Pier Morin (left), now in Canada, burst into tears, our source said. “He makes out with other girls all the time, like all the time,” said a different source who has seen him lock lips with women at Gold Bar and 1Oak.  A rep for Prust said, “Brandon is not dating Michelle Trachtenberg. They just met. Other than that, Brandon has no comment.”

And here I was thinking there’d be nothing to write about following the Rangers lackluster shootout loss to Ottawa last night.  Turns out Prusty isn’t just picking up goals on the ice these days (his timely third period wrister past Craig Anderson saved a point for the blueshirts last night and was his second goal in five games).  He’s scoring in nightclubs all over the city and breaking hearts like you read about (on page six, apparently).

If you watch the Rangers at all, you know that Brandon Prust is a play-through-pain, board-battling, bad-ass grinder who is never afraid to drop the gloves and get cut up.  He made a home for himself on Broadway after coming over in the Olli Jokinen trade from Calgary last season and has flourished under Tortorella’s coaching style.  He’s second in the league in shorthanded goals and has been a key part of the Rangers’ most consistent line along with bash brother Brian Boyle.  So the fact that he’s slamming models and actresses all over North America comes as no surprise to me.  Hockey players have been quietly pimpin it up since the good ol’ days of Gretzky-Janet Jones.

But then here comes the Post to blow up Prusty’s spot like some gossiping high school girls (pun intended).  How’s he supposed to mack ass on his off nights when every exploit is reported back to his girlfriend?  Last time I checked, there was a well-established zip code rule that exonerates my man through and through.  She’s in Canada ice fishing or whatever and he’s in New York clubbing and making out with every girl he sees.  It’s not cheating if she has to use her passport to come kick his ass.  And let’s be honest here.  It’s the Eurotrip chick.  The nerdy little ginger one who blew Coop’s mind with that bikini-nude beach scene.  Everybody wants to bang the nerdy chick who’s a secret smoke.  I don’t begrudge him a little Gossip Girl get-some and neither should the Post or his soon to be ex-girlfriend.  Let the pro athlete go about his pimpery in peace.

On another note, the Rangers will look to bounce back from a very off night when they battle the Bruins in Boston on Saturday afternoon.  We haven’t seen these two teams play since November, so I took the advice of my commenter-arch nemesis BlackDude and googled them just to see how “nasty” they are now.  Turns out he was right and the B’s are pretty decent.  They’ll also be confident coming off an absolute trashing of their Canadien rivals last night, but I’m not one to worry.  Confident Boston fans should remember the mini-slump they went on following their last win over Montreal and recognize the letdown potential.  Don’t get too high off that 7-0 smoking, you’ve got a hungry team coming to play tomorrow.  LET’S GO RANGERS!

UPDATE:  Turns out Trachtenberg recently broke up with former Knick and rumored Italian Danilo Gallinari.  I guess the girl likes her white athletes.  Michelle, if you’re all about the ivory, stick with hockey players.  At least they’re not world famous for their philandering.  Except for Prust, that is.