Lightning head coach Jon Cooper appears to accuse the referees of being in the Leafs' pocket following Game 3 loss
The Leafs rolled in to Tampa Bay last night after having forfeited home ice in Round 1 thanks to a blowout loss in Game 1 at home. It was important to show up for Game 3 and take at least 1 of Game 3 or 4 in Tampa to re-gain home ice, but also to gain an edge and try to bring a series lead home to Toronto. The job's not done yet, with Game 4 taking place on Monday night in Tampa, but the Leafs do hold a 2-1 series lead now thanks to a 4-3 OT win last night, with a chance to go up 3-1 on Monday before heading home.
The Leafs were outmatched for most of this one, with the Lightning outshooting and out-chancing the Buds in the contest, but the shots on the scoreboard don't matter. Only the goals do - and the Leafs scored more of them on Saturday night. There's no question that Ilya Samsonov bailed out the team last night, but he did have a couple of sequences in the game in which he allowed pucks to squeak through him. Twice, pucks that trickled over the line required play reviews to determine whether or not a goal was scored. One came back in favour of Tampa and the other in favour of the Leafs.
Goal:
No goal:
So, in the first instance, the goal was allowed despite the official intending to blow the whistle. Why this one was allowed was because of a continuation of play. The shot trickled through on its own and crossed the line prior to the whistle. In the second instance, the goal was disallowed because the official blew the whistle prior to the puck crossing the line. The play was ruled dead, as the official didn't have the luxury of seeing that the puck was loose prior to blowing the play dead.
Naturally, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper was unimpressed with how his team allowed this one to slip away, regardless of how it happened. When asked after the game what he thought of the play being blown dead on Brayden Point's scoring chance prior to the puck crossing the line, Cooper had no problem throwing the official under the bus, insinuating that the ref actually had something to gain by blowing the play dead instead of allowing it to continue.
Cooper has been able to skirt the line with his comments about officiating, avoiding fines in the process. This one, however - suggesting that the officials were in the Leafs' pocket... that's just petty and sad. He did acknowledge that it wasn't the reason why his team lost, but it's funny how quick he is to criticize the officials when his team is on the losing end. You didn't hear him talking about the officiating when Tampa was gifted 8 power plays and won Game 1.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 23 | 260 ANSWERS Lightning head coach Jon Cooper appears to accuse the referees of being in the Leafs' pocket following Game 3 loss Should Point's goal have been allowed? | ||
| No - the whistle had gone | 204 | 78.5 % |
| That's a tough one. I'm not sure | 20 | 7.7 % |
| Yes, the puck was loose | 36 | 13.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
