By Jack Ryan
Don’t you just love this?
The thumb has been on the scale by the officials for the Washington Capitals during the first four games of the Flyers series.
They have gotten almost every close call.
And now they are whining!
Capitals coach Barry Trotz said yesterday that he discussed Brayden Schenn’s cross-check to the knee of Evgeny Kuznetsov with a league officiating supervisor, and that he had also mentioned it to on-ice officials during Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to the Flyers.
The incident occurred late in the second period ofWashington’s Game 4 loss, after Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth covered up a loose puck. While Kuznetsov stood in front of Neuvirth, Schenn skated over and cross-checked the back of the Capitals forward’s right knee. No penalty was called.
“I think it’s a dangerous play,” Trotz said. “I think it should not be in our game. And any player who’s looking to try to wreck a guy’s knee or injure him, especially when the play is dead, that definitely should be out of the game. Every player on every team will tell you that’s disrespectful if they watch it. They’ll just say that can’t be in the game.”
Trotz said it’s the second time something like that has happened in this series, referencing an earlier cross-check from Philly forward Wayne Simmonds toward Alex Ovechkin’s knee in Game 2. Trotz said he mentioned the incidents to Mick McGeough, who is supervising officials in this series.
“That’s twice,” Trotz said. “Once is maybe a coincidence. Twice is not.”
Caps forward Tom Wilson was also asked if he had seen a replay of the incident.
“Yeah, there’s really no way to put it, but that’s pretty cheap,” Wilson said. “You come in after a whistle and you target a guy’s knee like that, there’s really no time for that. That’s just another kind of a little piece of motivation that we can use, they’re targeting a guy like Kuzy, cross-checking him in the knee. I mean, that’s a pretty dangerous play, so we’ll just use that as a little motivation to send those guys home. We don’t like that, obviously one of our best players. We’re just going to kind of play within the rules and hopefully send them home, send them packing.”
Trotz said he wasn’t sure whether anything would result from his conversation with McGeough.
