Bruins react to yet another controversial non-call involving Panthers’ Sam Bennett
Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery felt good about the challenge he issued following what was a game-tying power-play goal from the Panthers’ Sam Bennett.
The sequence that led up to the goal made it an obvious challenge, too. On what was a second-chance look, Bennett crosschecked Bruins center Charlie Coyle into Jeremy Swayman, and effectively took both Coyle and Swayman out of the play and gave himself an open net for the goal.
That challenge did not go Boston’s way, however, as a video review from Toronto upheld the call and set the wheels in motion for what was yet another playoff loss for the B’s, this one by a 3-2 final.
“Toronto ruled that it was a good goal, that the play didn’t interfere with the goal,” Montgomery offered after the loss, which has put the B’s in a 3-1 series hole. “That’s the explanation I got.
“We thought that Coyle was on top of our goaltender, and if Coyle was able to stand his ground, he could have cleared the puck. That inhibited our goaltender from being able to react and play the puck.”
Montgomery’s feelings were shared by those in the Boston room.
“The fact is, is that Coyle was pushed into me [and] I couldn’t play my position,” a noticeably frustrated Swayman, who paused to collect his thoughts before answering the question, said. “That’s that.
“I just want to stick to facts: The fact is that my own player was pushed in to me by theirs, and I couldn’t play my position.”
“Puck goes, it’s in the crease, [I’m] trying to make a play and goes through me, I feel a push in behind and I go down on Sway and puck trickles pass and right to their guy [for an] empty net,” Coyle said when asked what he saw on the sequence. “You know, figured I could probably turn around and make a play on it or clear it. Yeah, that’s what happened. It’s a tough call.”
The NHL ‘Situation Room’ did not agree.
“Video review supported the referees’ call on the ice that that the shove by Florida’s Sam Bennett on Charlie Coyle and the subsequent contact with Jeremy Swayman did not prevent Swayman from playing his position in the crease prior to Bennett’s goal,” an email from the Situation Room read.
The ‘Situation Room’ seemingly failed to take into account the NHL’s own rule on such incidents.
With momentum on their side, the Panthers rode the Bennett goal to a go-ahead strike from Aleksander Barkov, and held the Bruins to just one shot on goal following Bennett’s strike.
And in a somewhat surprising decision, Montgomery opted to maintain a diplomatic tone when it came to the overall officiating and rulings made in this series.
“It’s not my place to comment,” Montgomery said when asked about his ‘faith’ that the league would make the right call on his challenge. “I mean, the league does a good job of handling their end of things. Just like I think teams do a good job of handling their teams.”
The Bruins will look to keep their season alive in a must-win Game 5 in Sunrise on Tuesday night.
