First and foremost, the play above is one in which a penalty inarguably needs to be called, regardless of circumstance. Even if the NHL weren't in the midst of taking a long overdue stance against head shots in their sport, their officials letting an obvious crosscheck to the side of a player's face go undisciplined solely because it happened to occur when the guilty party was already on the penalty kill is the type of antiquated and overly traditionalist bullshit that makes the league look as though it's about as capable of governing itself as internet comment sections. The game is no longer organized warfare, and thus a successful homicide should not be a requirement of every two-man advantage throughout its playoffs. That being said, what this instance isn't - or shouldn't be, anyway - is an opportunity for a losing team to pin all of their own failures on one first period play...
I don't want to call into question the character of someone with which my familiarity is limited to watching his face turn the color of the warning sign that should pop up on the screen as the camera scans to his lips when things aren't going his way. However, I'd be lying if I said that Bruce Boudreau didn't strike me as the type of old-fashioned antagonist that typically loves when referees pick and choose when to put their whistles away. I could be wrong, of course, but he also doesn't come off as someone who would adamantly demand an immediate ejection for a wayward stick to the face if not for said face belonging to his 40+ goal scorer. I'm not going to go as far as calling him a hypocrite because it's impossible for anyone to remain objective in judging the officiating of a game in which they're emotionally invested, never mind someone whose job security depends on it. On the other hand, I will go as far as calling him a finger-pointing son of a bitch who probably should have put more thought into coaching the contest as it stood as opposed to crafting a hypothetical game script in which, for some reason, his team's 5-on-3 powerplay would have only been successful in erasing their careless defensive zone breakdown. I surely sympathize with his frustration, but I guess what I am trying to say is that if a head coach ignores the butterfly effect while listing off a bunch of dependent assumptions that favor his team and, in crafting his biased best case scenario, still doesn't envision said team scoring a single goal in regulation then they probably needed a hell of a lot more help than one whistle. By no means does the following excuse the officials' stupidity, but sometimes in hockey shit just happens. The best teams are those that wipe it and move the hell on, because needing everything to go your way to win is a loser's mentality.
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