8 penalties were called Saturday night and yet they were not called as a result of a dirty game. Goal were scored, passes were made and yet an inability of Saturday's referees to simply let the players play ultimately made it so that the Bruins were unable to salvage a win in the back half of their home and home series vs the Ottawa Senators.
Now I do not mean to complain about every call, or simply whine about the loss and blame the referees but as you examine this game in even the slightest detail it becomes clear that while very few calls were missed, on several occasions they were made when such a reaction was not warranted. For example Bruin forward, Brad Marchand was whistled for a slash early in the 1st period and yet the play occurred just 11 seconds into the game and Marchand had taken just 2 strides away from his prior position near the center dot. This play was one that must have been allowed to proceed penalized not only because of its lack of severity and force but also because of the timing. Very rarely do you already feel any sort of anger directed at an opponent so early in a game meaning that even if Marchad intended to slash downward with his stick it was a completely defensive movement and I point out barely hindered it's Senators recipient in his move to break into the Boston zone.
Marchand would be whistled later in the game as well although that call, a hook against Kyle Turris, was acceptable.
"I think we deserved a win today," Coach Claude Jullian said to a gaggle of reporters after the game possibly hinting at 2 missed calls in particular that if reversed would have given the Bruins the win.
After falling behind 3-1 going into the 3rd period the Bruins battled back admirably tying the game at 3 off of goals by Jarome Iginla and then David Warsofski. For a brief time they even believed they had taken the lead when Jarome Iginla banked a puck off his skate and into the net. The play was overturned but not before the team in stripes held a long meeting with the Toronto review department via the penalty box video monitors. Jarome Iginla seemed a little disheartened by the call.
"I didn't really expect it to be a goal," Iginla said. "I knew (the puck) was coming to my foot, but I was hoping it wasn't a kicking motion. At the same time I understand the call, but you're always hoping for the best for sure."
While he did move his skate prior to the puck hitting it, it was in a motion to prevent himself from sliding straight into Craig Anderson rather than kick the it past him.
What was even more atrocious however was the play that was allowed to stand despite it being a blatant offside. Mere minutes after the overturned Iginla goal, Bobby Ryan made a forceful steal of the puck from Torey Krug and sped unchecked towards the Boston goal. However, as Krug charged back, Ryan seemed to lose control of the puck as he crossed the Boston zone. Amidst that bobble at the line there was confusion as to whether or not it was offside as lead linesmen Michel Corbille almost immediately waved the goal off while his fellow officiating partners immediately came rushing together to re-award the goal to Ryan.
As shown on replay, it is no secret that Ryan did not have the puck firmly positioned on his stick as he entered the zone and furthermore there is a case to be made that both his heels were forward of the blue line while the puck was still on it. According to the NHL definition of offside, this would be a discounted goal and yet the officiating team did not even seek the help of Toronto to get this one right.
"The position of the player’s skates and not that of his stick shall be the determining factor in all instances in deciding an off-side. A player is off-side when both skates are completely over the leadingedge of the blue line involved in the play.
A player is on-side when either of his skates are in contact with, or on his own side of the line, at the instant the puck completely crosses the leadingedge of the blueline regardless of the position of his stick."
The latter part of that definition was not firmly proven on this play and so the original call of no goal must have been counted by terms of the NHL regulation saying that without conclusive evidence, the on ice call is the one that will be upheld.
Saturday night in the Canadian capital, we saw a refereeing team plagued by inconsistency as while penalties like Marchands were called plays involving David Krjeci getting decked to the ice away from the play were not. Marginal kicking motion calls were made on plays like the Iginla no goal while they were not on the would be Ryan offside.
If you were going to let them play you needed to do just that from the first horn to the final horn and such was not the case vs the Senators.
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