Boston Bruins’ Cassidy: Game 4 Calls On Ice ‘A Complete Head-Scratcher’

BOSTON – The Boston Bruins are riding high and up 3-1 against the Washington Capitals in the best-of-seven playoff series after Friday night’s one-sided 4-1 win in Game 4 at TD Garden. But not everything was roses and sunshine for the Black and Gold despite their solid win over the Caps to take a commanding lead in the series.

It seems the B’s had some issues with the referees despite getting the better of things on the scoreboard.

The Capitals wound up with seven power plays during the game despite Boston’s clear domination through the 60 minutes of hockey, and Kevan Miller was injured by a nasty hit from Dmitry Orlov in the second period. Orlov launched off his skates and was definitely a bit late with the body contact on Miller, but Washington’s penalty was downgraded from a five-minute major to a double-minor penalty for roughing after a video review by the officials.

Add in a very questionable interference penalty on Brad Marchand in the third period for nudging a Capitals player during a race for a puck and one could understand Cassidy’s discontent with the on-ice officiating.

“What happened there is their guy left his feet borderline late and drove right under his chin. He told me skating by that when they reviewed it that they felt [Orlov] made contact first to his upper body, but it didn’t look that way to my vantage point. Kevan is in the hospital undergoing some CTs and until he gets back, we won’t know anything there.

“It’s obviously frustrating to watch that review and the [major penalty] call go by the wayside. It was essentially a two-minute minor and then later you watch that [interference] penalty assessed to Marchand and it’s just a complete head-scratcher sometimes on what’s a two-minute penalty. But we played through it and we need to take of our business, and [the officials] need to take care of their business. I didn’t see it the way they did and it’s unfortunate for Kevin, but we’ll see how he is.”

Cassidy didn’t even mention Washington somehow getting a power play when Tom Wilson cross-checked Nick Ritchie while he was down on the ice in the aftermath of Charlie Coyle scoring Boston’s third goal.

*record scratch*

*freeze frame*

“yup thats me. you’re probably wondering how i ended up in this situation” pic.twitter.com/x7N5sUn0Jh

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) May 22, 2021

Whatever the level of questionable officiating was on Friday night, the Bruins barely trail the Capitals in pretty even power play opportunities (17-to-16) for both clubs over the course of four highly physical, competitive playoff games to this point.

The good news for the Boston Bruins is that the puck didn’t lie when it came to the actual game being played on the ice as the B’s pumped in three power play goals, persevered through the questionable calls and stand just one win away from advancing to the second round.