The first five games of the Stanley Cup playoff round between the Bruins and Panthers have included some questionable officiating.
Former Bruins player and coach Mike Milbury recognizes that certain decisions on the ice can be missed, but he called the postseason officiating the “worst” he’s ever seen when he appeared on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” on Thursday.
“It’s been the worst officiated playoff season I’ve seen in decades,” Milbury said during the show. “It’s been terrible all over the ice.” They’ve missed stuff, they’re second-guessing themselves, and it makes the players unsure of what they can get away with, which is not a good thing. “They’ll have to look at this as a failure from an officiating standpoint.”
In Game 3, Jakub Lauko was taken down by Aaron Ekblad, sending the Bruins forward into Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, resulting in a power play opportunity for the Panthers rather than Boston. In the same game, Brad Marchand received a sucker punch from Sam Bennett that went unpunished on the ice.
“It was a sneaky, dirty punch,” Milbury explained. “It should have been an immediate call on the ice, but they missed it. You understand why people miss it.
Bennett, who had not faced any disciplinary punishment from the league, found himself embroiled in yet another controversy in Game 4. Bennett scored his second goal of the postseason after cross-checking Charlie Coyle in the crease, pushing the Bruins forward into Jeremy Swayman and putting the Boston goalkeeper out of position.
“I feel they blew that (call) against Coyle,” Milbury added. “It wasn’t a boisterous cross-check, but it was enough to get him against the goaltender and give them enough time to simply tap it into an open net. That is egregious to me.”
When Florida coach Paul Maurice challenged Charlie McAvoy’s goal in Game 5, the Bruins received one call in their favor.
“There was some contact there,” Milbury said. “However, Bobrovsky was able to reset. I never believed it should have been called back. However, the way things are going, you really don’t know what they’re going to name. There’s a lot of confusion regarding how to approach this (call).
Through the first five games of the series, the Panthers have enjoyed 25 power-play opportunities to Boston’s 14. The Bruins are 19-for-25 on the penalty kill, allowing six Florida power-play goals in the series.
The Bruins, behind the Panthers 3-2, must win Game 6 on Friday night to save their season. The puck drop at TD Garden is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on TNT, with an hour of pre- and postgame programming on NESN+.
