Penguins Coach Blasts Refs After Loss
The Pittsburgh Penguins coaching staff was not happy about a specific play after their shootout loss.
PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Penguins took a tough loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets as another must-win game was dropped after blowing a late two-goal lead. Long before the Penguins had a lead to let slip away and a shootout to lose in, the Blue Jackets scored the opening goal just under eight minutes into the game.
Given a short-handed opportunity, Mathieu Olivier scored to give the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead, but Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan believed there was an infraction on the play. As the opportunity developed, Blue Jackets forward Cole Sillinger made contact with Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, pulling him far out of position.
Before Nedeljkovic could break free from his scrum, Olivier picked up the loose puck and easily pushed it into the empty net. Sullivan and the Penguins challenged the play for goalie interference, but it was quickly deemed a good goal by the officials.
An overhead angle of the play showed that Sillinger wasn’t maintaining his contact with Nedeljkovic, and the Penguins goalie was just slow to get back into the play. That didn’t stop Sullivan from saying a few words following the contest about his failed challenge.
“The blue paint is the goalie's domain,” Sullivan said. “We felt like when a player goes into the blue paint on his own volition without getting pushed there, then there's a possible goalie interference.”
That’s a fair point from Sullivan and arguably the main reason why he challenged the play in the first place. Sillinger attacked the net and made contact with Nedeljkovic, knocking him mostly out of the play.
What qualifies as goalie interference has been a hot topic in the NHL for ages, and it never gets easier to identify. Sullivan and the Penguins’ coaching staff appear among the many people still trying to figure out exactly what defines the infraction.
“But your guess is as good as mine,” Sullivan said. “If anybody can figure out goalie interference, we're all ears."
Had that call gone the other way for the Penguins, there is no telling what could have happened to the game's outcome. That goal opened the scoring for what turned out to be a back-and-forth affair that needed a shootout to decide the victor.
Make sure you bookmark Inside the Penguins for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more.
- Subscribe to Inside the Penguins on YouTube
- Follow Inside the Penguins on Twitter: @InsidePenguins