It's that time of year, when just about every coach in the NHL finds their own way to work the officials a little bit.
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy took his turn Saturday night after Game 4 when asked about a couple missed calls in the game, saying he thinks that "the whole playoffs we haven’t got very many calls to put us on the power play."
On Sunday, Islanders coach Barry Trotz dipped his toes in the water, taking aim at one Bruin in particular while discussing faceoffs: Patrice Bergeron.
"I think Bergy's been a really good faceoff guy, one of the best," Trotz told reporters. "I think [Islanders centers Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Travis Zajac, Brock Nelson], they all study what he does. The biggest thing with Bergy, and really linesmen can control this, is he doesn't like to get his stick down. He has to come to a stop, and then you have a fair fight.
"He's a veteran guy who knows how to cheat on the faceoffs. I'm relying on our very capable officiating crew and linesmen to make sure the cheating doesn't go on, because he's good at it. All the veteran guys are. He's not the only one, trust me. But he's very good, he's very capable, and he's been a top centerman and faceoff guy for a long time."
While every center tries to get little advantages on faceoffs and pushes the envelope at times -- hence why you see centers get thrown out of the circle so much -- calling it "cheating" is pretty strong.
It's also hard to miss that whether intentionally or not, Trotz kept getting Bergeron's nickname wrong, pronouncing it "Berjy" rather than "Bergy" with a hard "g" like everyone else.
Whatever the approach to facing Bergeron on faceoffs -- whether on the ice or off it -- it's working for the Islanders. Bergeron, the top faceoff man in the league in the regular season with a 62.2% faceoff win percentage, is just 37-of-81 (45.7%) at the dot in this series. He has particularly struggled against Pageau, going 14-of-37 (37.8%) against New York's third-line center.