The Bruins got outplayed for the majority of Sunday night’s 3-2 loss to the Panthers, which gave Florida a commanding 3-1 series lead. Boston also ended up on the wrong side of a highly questionable goal call that proved decisive.
Both of those things are true. The Bruins did not lose solely because of poor officiating and a bad replay decision by the NHL situation room. They couldn’t convert on three breakaways in the second period. They gave the Panthers six power plays. They got outshot 14-2 in the third period.
But all the confusion and controversy around Sam Bennett’s game-tying goal early in the third period is impossible to ignore.
With the Panthers on the power play – one they probably didn’t deserve, but we’ll get to that in a minute – Bennett crashed the crease for a loose puck and banged it in before Jeremy Swayman could slide across his crease.
The problem is that there was a good reason Swayman couldn’t slide across his crease. Bennett had crosschecked Charlie Coyle from behind, and Coyle had landed on Swayman, preventing him from moving.
At least, that’s what it looked like. And that’s what the Bruins thought happened, which is why Jim Montgomery decided to challenge the goal.
“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,” Montgomery said postgame. “That inhibited our goaltender from being able to react to the play.”
While Bennett technically interfered with Coyle, not Swayman, rule 69 in the NHL rulebook makes it clear that shouldn’t matter for the purposes of goalie interference.
“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 purposes of this rule, and if necessary a penalty assessed to the attacking player and if a goal is scored it would be disallowed,” the rule reads.
The NHL situation room in Toronto apparently didn’t believe that’s what happened here, though.
“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,” the league said in a statement explaining its decision to uphold the goal call on the ice.
That seems like a really hard case to make when you watch the replay. Coyle making contact with Swayman appears to clearly affect Swayman’s ability to make a save, and Coyle only makes contact with his goalie because Bennett knocked him into Swayman.
Bruins players were as perplexed by the ruling as their fans, who showered the refs with boos.
“To us it was clear that Coyle got crosschecked in the crease and Sway couldn’t move,” David Pastrnak said. “You have to look at it in the rulebook. It’s clear there, that it’s goalie interference. That’s why we challenged it. We have a great video coaching staff, and we thought it was a sure thing.”
Making it sting even more was the fact that it was Bennett who scored. Bennett was already public enemy No. 1 in Boston after landing a sucker-punch on Brad Marchand in Game 3 that forced the Bruins’ captain to miss Game 4. Another angle of that play was surfaced by TNT pregame on Sunday, making it even clearer what happened, and making you wonder if Bennett should have been suspended for Game 4.
On top of all that, the Bruins also have a fair gripe with how the Panthers ended up on the power play in the first place. Hampus Lindholm was called for interference on Oliver Ekman-Larsson, but Ekman-Larsson could have easily been called for embellishment for flopping to the ice. And then seconds after that, Bennett tripped Coyle away from the play, but was not called for interference.
Four minutes after Bennett’s goal, Aleksander Barkov scored what proved to be the game-winner when he drove right down Main Street through the Bruins’ defense and flipped a shot past Swayman.
The Bruins should have had a better response to Bennett and/or Barkov’s goal. There was still 12:29 left in the game when Barkov gave the Panthers the lead. The Bruins did not land a single shot on goal during that 12:29. Obviously, that isn’t nearly good enough.
The officiating and the league’s explanation wasn’t nearly good enough either, though. It’s far from the only reason the Bruins are now in a 3-1 hole, but, unfortunately, it’s become a story that’s impossible to ignore.