Coach Joel Quenneville spoke in a hushed tone, the one he usually falls into after a loss. But his words were anything but quiet.
Quenneville called the refereeing a disgrace, in Game 3, the one in which Marian Hossa was hit high by Raffi Torres and no official saw it or called a penalty in the Blackhawks 3-2 overtime loss. The hit had the Blackhawks angry immediately, as Hossa lay motionless on the ice and Torres wasnt whistled for any infractionBrandon Bollig got two, a roughing and a 10-minute misconduct, when he went after Torres.
It was a brutal hit, Quenneville said. You can have a multiple choice question its All the Above.
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Quenneville said the Hossa play happened right in front of him in the first period.
I had a hard time. I saw exactly what happened, he said. How four guys missed it tonight, it was hard. The refereeing tonight was a disgrace.
Quenneville wasnt asked, nor did he talk about, any other calls in the game. But the first one was probably more than enough. While Hossa was back home by the end of the night after underdoing tests at the hospitalDr. Michael Terry said in a statement that Hossas expected to make a full recoveryits little consolation. The Blackhawks didnt get a power-play on the ice; now theyll wait to see if Torres gets any supplemental discipline off it.
Several coaches have criticized officials already this postseason. But its easy to see it from their end. This postseason has been rough, brutal in some casesplease see the last game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers. Players are getting hurt, and if things dont change, the NHL runs the risk of worse injuries happening.