Following the Bruins 7-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 3, head coach Bruce Cassidy voiced his
frustration with the officiating in the contest as there were three instances that irked him.
The Bruins were much better in Game 4 Saturday, but still not good enough dropping the contest 3-1, putting the Bruins on the brink of elimination with Game 5 scheduled for Monday night.
Following the loss Cassidy once again let it be known he was not happy with a pair of calls in Game 4. This time one that was not called, and one that went against the Bruins.
The first was Cedric Paquette’s first period hit on Karson Kuhlman. No penalty was called on Paquette, instead issuing two minutes to Nick Ritchie for roughing as he came to the aid of Kuhlman.
“I mean you’re one-goal game and feel you've played through some stuff again tonight,” said Cassidy.
“In the first period our guy Kuhlman gets drilled from behind, and we're going to confront the situation, we're on the short end of the stick, and we saw what happened on a very similar hit later so there's a little bit of that going on in this series.”
What Cassidy was referring to by mentioning a very similar hit later in the game is what angered him the most.
Seconds after Yanni Gourde chipped the puck along the boards, Ritchie came in with a late hit on Gourde, sending him flying into the boards. Gourde was in discomfort after the hit, leaving the ice for the remainder of the period, but he was able to return in the third.
At first there was no penalty issued on the hit however, eventually the referees issued Ritchie a five-minute major for boarding.
“The discipline was nothing originally, there was no call, and then it turned into a five-minute major,” said Cassidy. “I’m not sure, I guess we’ll get an explanation or we won’t, I don’t know, I didn’t get one of why that changed.”
Cassidy went on to call Gourde “clever.”
Is that Cassidy’s way of implying Gourde sold the call to the referees, earning the five-minute power play?
You be the judge of that.
“Clearly Gourde was down on the play, he’s a good player, a real good player for them, clever. Obviously, got them on the power play for five minutes, he finished the game, had no problems in the third period,” said Cassidy.
“I didn’t agree with the call. As I said, Kuhlman got hit by Paquette late in the first period, like I said, a very, very, very, very, very similar hit, no call. But I guess we’ll ask that question, find out what the thinking was.”
With Ritchie in the box, the Lightning struck on the power play, extending their lead to two.
“I thought on the play I had no intent to put a guy on the ice and inure anybody. I was just finishing my hit, thought I did a good job keeping my arms down and it was shoulder to shoulder,” said Ritchie. “Maybe he wasn’t expecting it and he just got rid of the puck. I’m just playing my game and that’s part of it, sometimes stuff like that happens.”
The Ritchie experiment in Boston hasn’t worked too well since the veteran arrived in Boston from Anaheim via trade.
Ritchie has appeared in just eight playoff games in the bubble, with half of those coming in the series with the Lightning. Ritchie spent 12 minutes in the penalty box in Game 4, 1:42 more than he spent on the ice.
“He’s finishing a check, it happens all the time. He played through a player’s shoulder as I saw it. Shoulder to shoulder hard. I don’t know if the explanation was it was late or it was a 225 pound man hits a 170 pound man and that’s why the penalty is called. Like I said, I thought Paquette did the same thing if not worse to Kuhlman in the first period,” said Cassidy.
With just one good luck goal in the series and not a lot of positives on the ice, it’s hard to see why Cassidy would continue to roll with Ritchie for however many games are left in the series, but it sounds like in Cassidy's eyes, Ritchie has done exactly what he's been asked to do.
“I thought he did a good job, that’s what he’s asked to do, be hard on people, stick up for your teammates, go to the net, score dirty goals, make plays off the wall, all those things,” said Cassidy.
“So that hit was part of the job description and he did it. They reversed the call and at the end of the day, it went against us. We want Ritch to be physical, not reckless, and that’s what we thought it was, but it didn’t work out that way.”
From David Pastrnak, to Nick Ritchie to Charlie McAvoy and everyone in between, they’ll all need to be better in Game 5 as the Bruins season is on the line.
Boston Bruins Blogger • 
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