In a surprise media session, before he and his team took off for Florida on Monday afternoon, Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney deferred all officiating questions from the media to the league.
Less than 24 hours after he watched Florida Panthers center Sam Bennett tie the game on a controversial goal at two 3:41 into the third period, and then Panthers captain Sasha Barkov score the eventual game-winner just 3:50 later, Sweeney deferred to the NHL on any questions about Bennett not being called for cross-checking and/or goalie interference after cross-checking Boston Bruins center Charlie Coyle into goalie Jeremy Swayman prior to scoring.
“The overall premise I have, to be perfectly honest with you, is we should not be asking the coach after the game what they feel about the officiating and what happens,” Sweeney told the media before he and his team took off at Hanscom Field in Bedford, MA. “You guys should really be focused on what we didn’t do well enough in the course of the game to win a hockey game. Those questions should either be directed at either the supervisor of officials, supervisor of the series and/or the officials.
You want full access and transparency? Then put the officials in front of the microphone to answer the question. They’re the only ones that have the experience to be able to handle whatever interpretation they applied to Rule 69.”
As for the new angle of the Sam Bennett hit on Brad Marchand in Game 3, that clearly shows Bennett sucker punching the Boston Bruins captain in a play that caused Marchand to miss Game 4?
“The Department of Player Safety needs to make a statement on how they interpret that situation,” Sweeney said. “We’ve seen every angle you can possibly imagine. No different than when Brad himself has been called to the carpet and comparables are looked at. That’s their job, their responsibility to protect the players. We have to respect that, whatever their judgment is.”
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