Carolina Hurricanes Lose Double Overtime Thriller to The Boston Bruins

The Carolina Hurricanes lost to the Bruins in double-overtime

The Carolina Hurricanes dropped a controversial double-overtime early morning match-up against the Boston Bruins surrendering a 1-0 lead in the series.

This game was not by far the best game played by Carolina. It has to have been the worst performance by this team. Understandable considering they weren’t at 100% with both Justin Williams and Sami Vatanen declared “unfit to play” only hours before a puck drop that was delayed 15 hours thanks to a five-overtime game between Tampa and Columbus last night.

Add on a team that hasn’t played in just about a full week after stomping the Rangers, with a freshly returned Dougie Hamilton to the lineup and I just might excuse the results of a game that happened to drag into a second extra frame.

But with perhaps a bit more effort and perhaps some consistent officiating (we will get to that in a bit) this Carolina Hurricanes team could have extended their winning streak that extends back to March (if you don’t count the exhibition game against Washington) to seven games.

As it stands, the Carolina Hurricanes are going to need at least five games to move on to the next round. That means building upon the good takeaways from this game that allowed them to stay in it, avoiding the bad takeaways and perhaps learning from them, and praying to the hockey gods that the ugly takeaways do not rear their heads once again.

The Bad

Moments the Carolina Hurricanes would like to avoid in the future

Now I’m not sure if this was a result of early morning pre-noon puck drop, a late-night, or perhaps bad coffee at the hotel, but the Carolina Hurricanes did not show up on time and it showed on the scoreboard and the ice.

While Carolina scored once in each regulation period, so did Boston. Even if you include the overtime winner and the non-goal goal (soon, bear with me), each goal had two things in common.

The first is an out of position Petr Mrazek, who did not bring the same level of the game as he did against the Rangers but was also challenged a lot more. The second thing is an out of position defender. Joel Edmundson, Brady Skjei, and even Jaccob Slavin were each caught sleeping and the Bruins got to celebrate soon afterward.

The worst had to be the game-winning goal.

Brady Skjei lunges for the puck while behind the attacker by five feet. Joel Edmundson just puck watches as David Pasternak passes it across the ice to Patrice Bergeron who gets a wide-open net thanks to the fact that Petr Mrazek began to slide off the ice completely. He just left the net. I wish I was exaggerating when I say that he telegraphed his defense to the point of giving up the game.

This game was a loss at all levels. The good news is that there is still plenty of hockey left to play, it is a best-of-seven, and a marathon, not a sprint. The Hurricanes will have to dig deep, look at the footage, feel a little shame, learn from it, and come back tomorrow prepared to avenge the loss.

Perhaps we need to send a care-package of all their favorite coffee flavors and brands, Whatever it is the Carolina Hurricanes need to address their bad issues so that the ugly one can’t dictate the game like it did today.

The Ugly

The Carolina Hurricanes would love for these things to just stop happening.

The officiating. Yes, we are going to talk about it now. Because as bad as the Carolina Hurricanes were defensively in this game, the officiating was way, way worse.

Look every game has some missed calls. Every game has some calls that with some further review should have been overturned. Two minutes in the box doesn’t change much over the longer course of things. So for the most part, complaining about the officiating doesn’t seem like something to waste your breath with.

Today was a different story. In the second period, the Bruins launch a rebound up in the air and try to knock it down with their hand. Petr Mrazek games down with the glove to secure the puck, coming out of his net to do so. However, the puck is then passed from under his glove by another Bruin to Charlie Coyle who launches it into an empty net with Mrazek on the ice.

Mrazek jumps up and demands the goal be overturned because he had the puck under his glove. Rod Brind’amour challenges for a Missed Game Stoppage.

What gets lost in the conversation is that somehow the challenge is made that the missed call was a hand-pass and not the fact that Mrazek had the puck and it was forced away, because that would be goaltender interference apparently. Here is how the goal came out to be.

So we are tracking, they upheld the call on the, which was no whistle to stop the game for a handpass because Petr Mrazek had control of the puck with his glove. Not his stick, his glove. So Charlie Coyle’s goal becomes unassisted. But how did Coyle get the puck? The officials who looked at the footage several times have no clue. Must have been magic.

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Reality is that that goal should have been overturned for goalie interference. Mrazek had the puck and was impeded from doing his job when a stick game under his glove and swiped it away from him. That was obvious in the replay footage and the rules should be flexible enough for the officiating to say that while the challenge was unsuccessful, the goal is overturned on new evidence.

Instead, we have this charade of officiating that decided to hold it to just what Rod had challenged even though a failed challenge here is another violation there. This should have been no-goal and the Bruins should have been penalized for goaltender interference. Carolina should have been awarded a powerplay instead of going on the kill.

Would it have changed the outcome of the game? Perhaps. Maybe not. But that isn’t the point. The point is for the officiating to be consistent and control the game. Otherwise, this is a circus and the refs are simply the clowns there for entertainment instead of keeping order. Rod Brind’amour had this to say about the results when asked by the News and Observer:

“This is why the league’s a joke, in my opinion, on these things. That one is a crime scene.” “They came to me, and I said, ‘If he has possession of it then it’s goalie interference. If he doesn’t have possession then it’s a hand pass. It’s one of the two. I don’t know what you’re calling on the ice.” “All he has to do is tell me. ‘We’re calling it nonpossession (by Mrazek),’ then we’re challenging a glove-hand pass. If it’s possession, then goaltender interference. I said, ‘Tell me the call on the ice.’ They wouldn’t do it when I say, ‘What is the call?’ So I had to flip a coin.” “I said, ‘What was the call on the ice?’ and he said, ‘You’ve got to call one or the other.’ It should be so easy. If they said the goalie had it, then it’s an easy call. They wouldn’t tell you. It makes no sense. I know we weren’t the better team, but if that goal doesn’t go in, do we win that game? I don’t know.”

These are strong words by Rod who joins John Tortorella as coaches who have called out bad officiating this season. Torts got fined by the league, and one might expect the same to happen to Rod. Regardless of the outcome, we all feel his anger.

Question for CC Readers: Did the officiating make the right call?