PITTSBURGH — No better way to start The Examiner’s brand new hockey blog than with some pregame chatter before Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series between the Caps and Pittsburgh Penguins.
Players and coaches were a little on edge Wednesday morning at Mellon Arena, where each team held its morning skate. With good reason, of course. Caps defenseman Mike Green called it “the pivotal game” of the series. Either the Caps bury the Pens tonight or give them life.
It was a K Street kind of morning. With all the lobbying going on they could have held the media scrum for both teams at the Willard. The Penguins are still unhappy officials failed to call an interference penalty on Caps F Alexander Semin during teammate Alex Ovechkin’s second goal in Game 2. Semin clearly got in the way of Pittsburgh F Matt Cooke just after a faceoff, but no call was made and Ovechkin gladly took advantage.
Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said the complaint was “comical” and that the Penguins are a team known for using picks after faceoffs. For his part, a testy Cooke said “I’m not getting involved in the chitter-chatter back and forth” — and then was suckered into doing exactly that.
Cooke, who voiced his displeasure with the non-call in Pittsburgh’s newspapers on Tuesday, later added: “Whatever. If Bruce wants to talk about what I said [after the game Monday] then so be it. But I really could care less what he says.”
So you can see why the rink felt like a middle-school playground at times this morning. Cooke also let slip that both teams have sent video of alleged interference calls to the league office for review. But players on both teams admitted that — while the ruckus may bring attention to the issue — public lobbying would do little to alter calls on the ice. Referees know what they missed and what they need to emphasize in a given game.
Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma tried his best to throw water on the fire. “I don’t think the way the referees have called the games should be any surprise to us or our players. I think they’ve done the job we expected them to do and as such the situations we found ourselves in we knew and expected.” Referencing Boudreau’s comments, he said: “I don’t know who’s laughing. But the game has been refereed the way the games are normally refereed.”
