Cassidy not thrilled with officiating
Bruins coach defends Ritchie
Bruce Cassidy was not about to throw Nick Ritchie under the bus.
The big winger put the Bruins down a man twice in the B’s crucial 3-1 loss, the second time for a late hit that drew – upon video review – a five-minute major.
Cassidy was more upset at what he felt were inconsistencies in the officiating. In the first period, Tampa Bay’s Cedric Paquette took a run at Karson Kuhlman and drove him hard into the boards, his head banging dangerously off the partition. What looked like a boarding penalty was not called, and Ritchie went after Paquette, whipping off his gloves and throwing punches while Paquette kept his on and took the blows.
Ritchie was assessed the only minor penalty, the B’s killed it off and seemed to gain some momentum off it that they carried into the second period.
But later in the second, Ritchie lined up an unsuspecting Yanni Gourde and blasted him into the boards. The hit was from the side, but it was awfully late. Gourde stayed down on the ice until the Lightning trainers came out and he needed some assistance as he moved to come off he ice. But he was able to return in the third period to finish the game. “He is a clever player,” Tampa Bay coach John Cooper said of Gourde. “But a gutsy player for coming back.”
And just when it appeared as though the B’s were going to survive the major, the hockey gods had a giant belly laugh at their expense. With 28 seconds left in the kill and the Lightning having difficulty penetrating the lower slot, Par Lindholm got a piece of Victor Hedman‘s shot in the high slot. The puck popped in the air but continued to sail toward the net, ever so slowly. Jaroslav Halak was never able to relocate it and it dropped behind him to give the Bolts a 3-0 lead.
While Ritchie’s second hit was clearly late, Cassidy wasn’t ready to concede that, especially after it appeared Gourde was able to sell it into a major.
“There was nothing originally, there was no call, and then it turned into a fiveminute major. I’m not sure, I guess we’ll get an explanation or we won’t, I don’t know, I didn’t get why that changed,” said Cassidy. “Clearly Gourde was down on the play, he’s a good player, a real good player for them, clever obviously, got them on the power play for five minutes, he finished the game, had no problems in the third period. I didn’t agree with the call. As I said, Kuhlman got hit by Paquette late in the first period, like I said, a very, very, very, very, very similar hit, no call. But I guess we’ll ask that question, find out what the thinking was.”
That’s five ‘verys’ if you’re counting. Cassidy later doubled down on his feelings, and defense of Ritchie.
“He’s finishing a check, it happens all the time. He played through a player’s shoulder as I saw it. Shoulder to shoulder, hard,” said Cassidy. “I don’t know if the explanation was it was late or it was a 225-pound man hits a 170-pound man and that’s why the penalty is called. Like I said, I thought Paquette did the same thing if not worse to Kuhlman in the first period. The standard is set, that’s what officials do, they set the standard and the players adjust to it and adapt to it game in and game out. So no, I thought he did a good job, that’s what he’s asked to do, be hard on people, stick up for your teammates, go to the net, score dirty goals, make plays off the wall, all those things. So that hit was part of the job description and he did it. They reversed the call and at the end of the day, it went against us. We want Ritch to be physical, not reckless, and that’s what we thought it was, but it didn’t work out that way.”
Ritchie later fought Barclay Goodrow, took a good punch to the kisser and then landed several shots to the helmet before losing his balance.
“I thought on the play I had no intent to put a guy on the ice and injure anybody,” said Ritchie. “I was just finishing my hit, thought I did a good job keeping my arms down and it was shoulder to shoulder. Maybe he wasn’t expecting it and he just got rid of the puck. I’m just playing my game and that’s part of it, sometimes stuff like that happens.”
Ritchie doesn’t intend to change his mindset.
“That’s part of the reason why the team brought me in here is to play physical and drive the net,” said Ritchie. “It’s part of my game. I’ve got to finish checks. Sometimes you get away with them. There’s been a lot of hits, big hits in this series that maybe haven’t been called and I’ve been flagged a couple times. I just have to keep working and playing my game.”
Missing the mark
While the B’s could use a few more saves, they’re not going to survive any longer than Monday’s Game 5 if they don’t make things any harder for Andrei Vasilevskiy. And as Cassidy pointed out, they’ve got to hit the net. David Pastrnak missed a wide open net on a power play early in the third period and Ondrej Kase appeared to miss the net on a backhander with room upstairs.
“I thought we deserved a better fate in terms of what we created,” said Cassidy. “As I said, if you’re going to be off-net you’re not going to score, and that was our problem tonight, with some good looks we were off net. Obviously, he made some saves, he always does, solid goaltender, so I thought our creation of offense, getting through the neutral zone, getting towards the good ice, all of that was there, just the finish wasn’t.” …
Though Jake DeBrusk scored the B’s lone goal on a third period power play, the second line has not had the same positive impact as it did in the Carolina series. It did have one good shift late in the game that produced Kase’s missed chance. David Krejci, who seemed to be quietly seething as he sat at the podium with Charlie Coyle, was asked if that was something his line could build off.
“I’m not really going to build on anything today. Let’s regroup and get ready for next game,” said Krejci tersely.
The centerman said they simply have to get more shots through.
“There’s no excuse for it. Forwards, we have to get to the net, find the shooting lanes. All those things. You know, you work in practice and we have to show it in a game. We have to get better at it,” said Krejci.
Around the boards
The numbers do not favor a Bruins’ comeback in this series. They are 0-for-23 when trailing in series 3-1 and are just 7-16 at extending series when down 3-1. Meanwhile, the Lightning have closed out all five series in which they’ve held 3-1 leads. …
Sean Kuraly missed his second straight game with an undisclosed injury. Cassidy said he’s day-today.