Boston Bruins: Controversial calls are going Boston’s way for once

The Boston Bruins have won five games in a row. A lucky outcome on two controversial calls made that a little easier.

The Boston Bruins haven’t seen this many consecutive wins since back in November and their eight-game win streak. The All-Star break definitely helped the team.

In the first part of the season, the Boston Bruins ended up on the wrong side of the challenges or close calls by the referees. However, that changed over the past two games for Boston.

On Tuesday night, facing the Vancouver Canucks at TD Garden, the Bruins’ first goal seemed to be a clear offside situation. The referees ultimately approved the goal scored by Charlie Coyle; there were two things to heavily dislike for each team.

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Firstly, the play was probably offside and the Canucks fans were furious after the game. However, the Bruins would have had their right to get angry, as well. The review from Vancouver’s video assistants took way long.

The NHL should clearly determine the time frame if one team chooses to challenge a goal for any reason. It shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds. The goal should have not counted, maybe it was too late for a challenge. A complete mess.

However, Coyle winded up scoring a goal. The NHL explained the play as Charlie McAvoy didn’t have possession of the puck and touched right after Sean Kuraly managed to tag up to the blue line.

Coyle had one goal disallowed himself in November in Montreal, which could have broken a 4-4 tie that night. It seems like the Bruins received a bit of justice compared to that disallowed goal against the Canadiens.

Secondly, Drake Caggiula sniped one in over Jaroslav Halak with something like just over a minute to go in the third period on Wednesday against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Hawks had possession on the delayed penalty against Boston.

The referees disallowed the goal Chicago scored (most likely the game-winner for the Hawks). Why did they blow the whistle? No one really knows. However, it was Olli Maatta, who made a pass to Caggiula while falling to the ice.

Maatta passed the puck over to the Hawks’ forward with his glove. It looked like the puck narrowly missed the stick of the Finnish defenseman. If that was the reason blowing the whistle, why didn’t the referees call the play immediately, rather than waiting for Caggiula to score a goal?

Nevertheless, the Bruins fans remember the Washington Capitals scoring a goal to their own net on a delayed penalty against Boston. A foul was committed, the Caps put the puck in their own goal, the Bruins didn’t touch it. Still, the referees didn’t call it a goal.

It’s not the way to correct an egregious error by another egregious error, because somebody will always have a cause to complain. The Boston Bruins ended up lucky on two controversial calls. Just like those unlucky calls, they have been on the opposite side of these type situations before too.