BEDFORD – Don Sweeney would like some clarity and some candor from the powers that be at the NHL level.
After watching Sam Bennett score the game-tying goal in the third period of Sunday night’s Game 4 loss at TD Garden, Sweeney wanted a better explanation as to why Bennett was allowed to crosscheck Charlie Coyle on top of Jeremy Swayman before popping in a loose puck rebound past the incapacitated B’s goaltender.
“Did not prevent Swayman from playing his position in the crease prior to Bennett’s goal”. OK.
— Tom Caron (@TomCaron) May 13, 2024
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The Bruins challenged that the play was goalie interference and seemed to have a good case under Rule 69 where “if a defending player has been pushed, shoved or fouled by an attacking player so as to cause the defending player to come into contact with his own goalkeeper, such contact shall be deemed contact initiated by the attacking player for the purposes of this rule, and if necessary a penalty shall be assessed to the attacking player and if a goal is scored it should be disallowed.”
It certainly seemed like Beckett “pushed, shoved or fouled” Coyle into Swayman to interfere with his recovery to the rebound created by Anton Lundell’s shot, and that action led to the 2-2 score in the third period. Once the challenge was denied and Boston eventually lost the game by a 3-2 score when they crumbled afterward in the third period, Sweeney’s attention turned to accountability from the NHL.
Series supervisor for the NHL Kay Whitmore was never made available to the media in way form or fashion, and neither was NHL supervisor of officials Stephen Walkom or game referees Frederick L’Ecuyer or Francis Charron after the dust had settled. That didn’t sit well with Sweeney, who was clearly still looking for answers while trying to dance around earning any kind of punitive fine from the NHL.
“The overall premise I have, to be honest with you, is we should not be asking the coach after the game what they feel about the officiating and what happens,” said Sweeney. “You guys should really be focused on what we didn’t do well enough in the course of the game to win a hockey game.
“Those questions should either be directed at either the supervisor of officials, supervisor of the series, and/or the officials [themselves]. You want full access and transparency? Then put the officials in front of the microphone to answer the question. They’re the ones that have the experience to be able to handle whatever interpretation they applied to Rule 69. Clearly, we challenged it because of our interpretation…[so] don’t put out a statement, just stand in front and answer the questions. It’s as simple as that.”
The league’s managers have discussed making officials and league supervisors available to the media for questioning as has become routine in the other pro sports leagues, but it hasn’t become the norm in the NHL. Even when it does happen, the questions and answers usually don’t all that much to clear away the controversy during these situations, but more information is obviously always better than less in any situation.
The NHL did release a statement after Bennett’s game-tying goal that “video review supported the Referees’ call on the ice that that the shove by Florida’s Bennett on Coyle and the subsequent contact with Swayman did not prevent Swayman from playing his position in the crease prior to Bennett’s goal.”
Sweeney also would have liked more clarity from the NHL Department of Player Safety about the Bennett punch to Marchand’s jaw that knocked him out of the series unpenalized and unpunished in any way. But that hasn’t happened as well while Marchand missed Game 4 and is “day-to-day” while traveling with the team to Florida for Tuesday night’s Game 5 to keep their season alive.
“The Department of Player Safety needs to make a statement on how they interpret that situation,” said Sweeney. “We’ve seen every angle you could possibly imagine. No different than when Brad himself has been called to the carpet and comparables are looked at. That’s their job, their responsibility to protect players. We have to respect, whatever their judgement is.”
MAROON NOT ENTERTAINING CRITICISM
Bruins fourth liner Pat Maroon was shown several times challenging Bennett during Game 4 as others gave him rough treatment as well, but nobody ended up forcing the Panthers forward into any kind of fisticuffs. Maroon seemed to resent any questions from the media about why he didn’t force the issue with the Florida rabble-rouser after he knocked Brad Marchand out of their Game 3 loss.
"I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. I'm sure everybody is wondering why I haven't done anything, and I'll say it's not like I haven't tried. I love my captain and I love the guys. It's a tough business and everybody looks at me to do something. I am trying. We can't really focus on that. We need to focus on winning a hockey game. I don't know what else you guys want me to do. It’s frustrating you guys are trying to do a narrative right now for [expletive] nothing, to be honest."
"We've got to win a [expletive] hockey game. That's what it comes down to. We need to turn the page and find a way. You can sit here and say I'm not doing my job. Maybe I'm not. Like I said before I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. Don't want to put my team in jeopardy.”
ONE-TIMERS
*Sweeney said that Marchand skated on Monday morning at Warrior Ice Arena and would be traveling with the team. He is still day-to-day at this point with an upper-body injury suffered in Game 3.
*With the season over for the Providence Bruins, goalie Brandon Bussi and forwards Patrick Brown and Jayson Megna joined the Black and Gold for the rest of their playoff run.
“We travel with three [goalies]. Michael DiPietro went down to practice with a few other guys. Providence is doing their exit meetings, some players will stick around,” said Sweeney. “Megna and Brown both joined us just to make sure we have bodies and if lineup changes need to be made. You always do an inventory, now you’re traveling, and we make sure we have the appropriate numbers with us at this time of the year.
“Just having different players at our disposal if we wanted to throw a different look in any way, shape, or form or if players are dinged up. That’s just how this time of the year is. It’s pretty common around the league.”