NHL can’t escape talk on officials
Once again, we’re stuck dwelling on a bad call in the playoffs
Shed a tear for the Boston
Bruins.
Poor guys. Why does life have to be so unfair? It’s just not right. Because, as anyone knows who has ever played sports — professionally or in a beer league — bad calls are certainly not part of the game.
No, we demand and expect perfection from our referees. When there is a mistake, it’s a green light to whine, complain and make excuses.
That’s what it sounded like following St. Louis’ 2-1 win on Thursday night, when the referees supposedly “cost” Boston a win in Game 5, because a trip in the defensive zone that led to a goal went uncalled.
And so now the Blues are one win away from winning the Stanley Cup. And the Bruins, who play in the same city as a team whose quarterback illegally deflated the football and a coach spied on other team’s practices, are crying foul.
If they lose the Cup, it’s the referees’ fault. Or maybe it’s Blues head coach Craig Berube’s fault, because he whined first about the officiating and is now getting all the calls in his favour.
It’s certainly not the Bruins’ fault, right?
“My feeling hasn’t changed,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy a day after telling reporters that his team got “screwed” out of a win. “I feel it was a missed call that impacted the game, unfortunately in a negative way for us. Other than that, we talked about how there’s been a few ( missed calls) in the post- season — because I’m a fan of the game, for me it’s a privilege and an honour to be working in
the National Hockey League and in the final — I’d rather be talking about that than a missed call that affects the game.”
Part of what Cassidy said was correct. It is unfortunate that we’re once again talking about referees’ mistakes and not what has been a compelling series between two physical teams. That’s the really unfortunate part to all of this.
We should be talking about Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington, who is now outplaying Tuukka Rask and on the verge of winning a Stanley Cup as a rookie. We should be talking about Zdeno Chara’s remarkable return from a broken jaw and Ryan O’reilly’s emergence as one of the NHL’S top two- way players. We should be pointing fingers at Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron, both of whom have gone unnoticed, and praising David Perron for finally stepping up and scoring the winner in Game 5.
Instead, in a post- season filled with hand passes and phantom calls, we’re wondering if an asterisk should be placed next to the Blues if they happen to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
For the record, the Blues have nothing to feel bad about. They’ve been on both sides of this. Mistakes happen. Human error is just as much a part of the game as a puck that takes a funny bounce off the boards and goes directly into the net. They’re unfortunate. But they’re not a reason for the NHL to step in and right any perceived wrongs.
The missed call in Game 5 was more along the lines of Kerry Fraser’s missed high-stick in the 1993 Eastern Conference final than it was Brett Hull’s skate in the crease in the 1999 final. It was bad. But it wasn’t series defining.
Lost in the furor over Perron’s eventual game- wining goal that shouldn’t have counted was that it occurred midway through the third period of a 1- 0 game. It wasn’t overtime. It wasn’t an elimination game. There was plenty of time left on the clock for Boston, which made it 2-1 on a goal from Jake Debrusk, to come back and force overtime.
Cassidy knows that, which is why when I asked him on Friday if there was a danger in dwelling on it, he came to his senses and put things in the right perspective.
“Our play should define us — not the call,” said Cassidy, whose team, like every other team in sports, has fought through bad calls in the past. “Let’s go back to Toronto. We lost Game 5 at home. There was a review on the ( Auston) Matthews goal. Some people felt it was goalie interference, some people didn’t. We had to go to Toronto and put that behind us. We went to Columbus and had one go off the (protective) net that ended up in (the back of ) our net. So we played through certain situations and we have to play through this one.”
For that, he can look to the Blues, who in the conference final lost Game 3 in overtime to the Sharks on an illegal hand pass that was so egregious, even Gary Bettman said it almost caused his head to explode. St. Louis ended up rebounding from that error and winning the next three games.
“St. Louis has done a terrific job. They did,” said Cassidy. “Because that one ( in the conference final) really went against them and they pushed on. High character in the locker-room. We have the same high character. I suspect we’ll put this one behind us and off we go.”
If they do, it would make winning a Cup all the more sweeter. If not, well, the city of Boston could soon be drowning in crocodile tears.
I feel it was a missed call that impacted the game.