In the Bruins' 4-1 Game 4 victory over the Capitals Friday night, an abundance of penalties by both teams helped determine the outcome of the game. The Bruins took advantage of their power plays, going 3-for-5, while the Capitals managed just one goal on seven attempts. But not all of the calls made sense to Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy.
The main issue the Bruins had with the officials was their decision to give Dmitry Orlov just a two-minute roughing minor for a hit up high on Kevan Miller.
The play resulted in a review but no major penalty being called on Orlov. Miller was transported to the hospital for further evaluation.
“What happened there is their guy left his feet, borderline late and drove right under his chin,” Cassidy said.
“He [the referee] told me skating by that he felt that when they reviewed it, he [Orlov] made contact first to his shoulder,” Cassidy continued, “but it didn't look that way from our vantage point.”
It was that decision to not go harder on Orlov, plus at least one perceived weaker call on the Bruins later in the game that had Cassidy most agitated.
“Obviously frustrating to watch that call, even the review go by the wayside, essentially a two-minute minor, and then later on you watch the penalty assessed to [Brad] Marchand. It's just a complete head-scratcher sometimes.”
The penalty to Marchand for interference in the third period was on a play away from the puck where it appeared Marchand had simply beat out Capitals defenseman John Carlson for position on the ice.
The loss of Miller, the subsequent roughing calls on Orlov, and Marchand’s power-play goal 32 seconds later seemed to turn the momentum for the Bruins, who had one thing on their minds after seeing the veteran defenseman go down.
“You never want to see a hit like that. Millsy’s a huge part of our team, he sticks up for everyone, so we wanted to do that for him. And making sure that we’re doing it the right way, we’re beating them on the scoreboard,” Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk said after the game.
Defenseman Charlie McAvoy also weighed in on the Bruins' attitude about how to handle that scary situation for his teammate.
“Ultimately we were able to respond on the scoreboard and get a win, which is all that matters," McAvoy said. “I think everybody stepped up in the absence of Millsy, who means so much to us.”
“We felt like we were going to have to get it done for him. And he's a big part of our team and that was our main focus in the third, to get it done for him,” David Pastrnak added.
Cassidy had no update yet on Miller’s status after arriving at the hospital.
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