Marc Bertrand: ‘I have a newfound respect for Jim Montgomery’
The Bruins find themselves down 3-1 in their second round series with the Florida Panthers. Game 4 ended in controversy when a no-call on a cross check forward Sam Bennett allowed for the Panthers to tie up the game in the third period. But our own Marc Bertrand is not allowing for that to be an excuse for the Bruins, and he is commending head coach Jim Montgomery for the way he handled things after the game:
‘I have a newfound respect for Jim Montgomery‘
“I think I have a newfound respect for Jim Montgomery, for how he handles his business after that game, because he knows and he watched the game winning goal. He knows that even if that goal is overturned, he doesn’t believe his team wins that game last night. And he doesn’t think it’s about that goal. He’s pissed about it. He was pissed on the bench. He gave it to the officials in game. You can’t deny him that. He didn’t need anyone to prod him to go give it to the refs, because he did. But I think he looks at it and thinks to himself, “we are not going to make this about that call. Our message here is not going to be that it’s all about the call”, because in his mind, as a coach, he knows he still has to try and win games in this series, that your job down 3-1 is now to try and win three straight, as improbable as that may be. If he gets too caught up in “the the refs hosed us” all of a sudden your focus is not on the things that you need to do better. It’s about how you just got screwed and you’re feeling sorry for yourself for what the refs did to you in Game 4. And so as a coach, I think he did the right thing last night. He’s going to move on from that. He is not going to focus on that. He is not going to point to that as the reason they lost the game. They had a 2-0 lead in this game. And even if they disallow that goal with the way that game was trending. How do you feel about their chances of winning that game last night? They’re not scoring enough offensively. It’s a little stagnant and he knows it. And that has to be his focus going into the next game. It can’t be about the bad call.“
LISTEN: Zolak & Bertrand react to controversial call in Bruins-Panthers Game 4