Boston Bruins: Winning result despite controversial call

If fans of the Boston Bruins thought their zebra woes ended with the Toronto series, they were sorely mistaken.

There hasn’t been much love for the referees this postseason in the NHL. Frankly, most of them don’t deserve any.  Across the league, teams have seen calls/non-calls on plays that would have certainly been flagged during the regular season. The Boston Bruins fell victim to a very controversial goal.

During Game 4 of the B’s second round match-up with the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Boston Bruins ended up giving up a goal right after the puck had bounced into the protective netting from a shot from Columbus defenceman Seth Jones.

Apparently, all four refs on the ice ‘missed’ the puck striking the netting (although half of the players for Boston and Columbus saw it). Already down 2-0, that lapse in judgement by the refs gave the Blue Jackets a chance to get back in the game.

The NBC Sports crew called it correctly, the puck bounced in the netting. That should have resulted in a stoppage of play, if not for negligence from the referees. So, how did this goal count? The play should have been called dead.

"According to Rule 38.4:“For pucks that hit the spectator netting undetected by the On-Ice Officials, “immediately” shall mean the following:a) When the puck strikes the spectator netting and deflects directly into the goal off of any playerb) When the puck strikes the spectator netting and falls to the ice and is then directed into the goal by the player who retrieves the puck."

According to the NHL, since the puck had been passed before Artemi Panarin shot it past Tuukka Rask, it was a good goal.

The refs than compounded that mistake by giving the B’s a phantom power-play opportunity immediately after the goal. It’s a classic story of two wrongs not making a right.

Then David Backes took an elbow to the chin and the refs deemed it only a minor penalty.

In most cases, the play of the teams sets the tone for the game’s ‘story’.  This was not the case on Thursday night. In this case, the story was told by a pack of blind zebras who were judging the game by their own set of rules.

I certainly won’t be surprised if the NHL HQ in Toronto doesn’t reprimand some or all of the officiants in Thursday night’s mess.

In the end, the Boston Bruins seemed to find their rhythm in the last ten minutes of regulation. Goals by Sean Kuraly and Patrice Bergeron (his second of the night) helped put the game beyond the reach of Columbus, and the Bruins defeated the Blue Jackets, 4-1.

In the end, the Boston Bruins won. So, why go off on how the refs were even worse than usual?

That ‘goal’ cost Tuukka Rask a shutout. For anyone who watched the game last night, Rask was the standout star for Boston. The Bruins had a rough stretch in the middle forty minutes of the game, and it was the Finnish net-minder (who has a 2.22 GAA and a .928 save percentage) who saved the B’s from disaster throughout the game.

There is a certain faction in the fan base that has little to no love for Rask. Some don’t like how he plays in the playoffs, others find an issue with his general style of play and his streakiness.

There are even a few people that dislike the fact that he isn’t Canadian (totally serious here). A shutout win would have helped silence some of Rask’s critics, and it’s a shame that negligence on behalf of the NHL took that away from the team.

The Boston Bruins come home to the TD Garden for Game 5 on Saturday for what will no doubt be another tense encounter.