Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour blasts ‘joke’ officiating after Game 1 loss
By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com
Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour had a big, big problem with the Charlie Coyle goal that gave Boston a 2-1 lead in the second period of Wednesday’s Game 1 meeting between the Bruins and Hurricanes.
It all started with an airborne puck in front of Hurricanes netminder Petr Mrazek.
With Carolina’s Jaccob Slavin and the Bruins’ Anders Bjork and Nick Ritchie all swinging at the puck, the puck landed back on the ice, where Mrazek attempted to cover it up. Mrazek appear to have a handle on the puck for maybe half a second before it was swiped out from under him by Bjork and sent to Coyle, where the Weymouth, Mass. native hammered it home with ease.
🚨 Charlie Coyle
— Fuck Dave Portnoy ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) August 12, 2020
2-1 #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/LpRELeIlTv
Brind’Amour had a few issues with this sequence: He definitely thought there was a hand-pass involved. And even if there wasn’t, or if it was negated by Mrazek playing the puck and resetting the carnage in front of him, Brind’Amour clearly felt that there was definite interference on Mrazek. Enough to create the goal for Boston.
But when challenging, the second-year ‘Canes coach was told he had to pick one or the other when it came to his dispute.
This, as you’d expect, didn’t sit well with him, as revealed by The Athletic’s Sara Civian.
Brind'Amour: "The guy comes to me and says it's either goalie interference because he has it and the guy knocked it out of his hand or it's a glove hand pass, you gotta pick one. Either way it's a no goal. What? YOU have to tell me what the call is. He's telling me to pick one"
— Sara 'vehemently anti-Rangers for a long time' Civ (@SaraCivian) August 12, 2020
Brind'Amour: If you're saying he didn't have it? You're not telling me what call you're making and I have to pick one? Then they go upstairs and say "Oh, he had possession"? It's horseshit. This is where the league is a joke."
— Sara 'vehemently anti-Rangers for a long time' Civ (@SaraCivian) August 12, 2020
But Rod The Bod was not done, and quickly transitioned his wrath to the proverbial eyes in the sky.
Brind'Amour on overhead refs: "The guys up there that aren't putting any sweat equity into this game decide the game. It's wrong. He doesn't tell me what the call on the ice is? If it's not a glove-hand pass I would've said OK, then that's fucking goalie interference."
— Sara 'vehemently anti-Rangers for a long time' Civ (@SaraCivian) August 12, 2020
Rod Brind'Amour: "There's no way that's a goal in any league. We have a million people doing this and they can't get it right. That's the problem with this league."
— Sara 'vehemently anti-Rangers for a long time' Civ (@SaraCivian) August 12, 2020
I mean, let ’em know how you really feel, Rod.
Brind’Amour’s frustration with the lack of clarity regarding what he can challenge vs. the ruling on the ice is definitely noteworthy. He’s also not the first coach to have a problem with this lack of clarity. (Bruce Cassidy actually brought this up when a Coyle goal was wiped away on an offside challenge back in November; Cassidy essentially said that you’d like to know what the ruling on the ice was, so that there’s a baseline knowledge of what they’re working to either confirm or dispute.)
But it’s also worth noting that this failed challenge didn’t necessarily doom the Hurricanes, as they scored a shorthanded goal just 21 seconds after the failed challenge, with Brock McGinn taking advantage of an ill-timed David Pastrnak pass.
It also wasn’t the reason the Hurricanes lost, as Boston went 0-for-4 on the power play, including an overtime opportunity that saw the Hurricanes repeatedly deny the B’s entry into the offensive zone.
Nevertheless, Brind’Amour’s rage was made known. But criticizing the NHL with this level of rage never seems to go over well.
Not financially, anyway.
And this rant was no exception, as the league wasted no time addressing Brind’Amour’s postgame comments, hitting the Carolina bench boss with a $25,000 fine on Wednesday night. Brind’Amour is also subject to an additional $25,000 conditional fine on the table should he go on a similar tirade against the league between now and Aug. 12, 2021.
The Bruins and Hurricanes will play Game 2 on Thursday night.
Postgame Podcast
Matt Dolloff and I talked about Game 1 and looked ahead to Game 2 in a bonus episode of the Sports Hub Sidelines podcast. Have a listen below.
Ty Anderson is a writer and columnist for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Yell at him on Twitter: @_TyAnderson.
