Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy didn't mince words following his team's 5-4 loss in Game 5 to the New York Islanders.
Cassidy, unhappy with what he believed were one-sided calls on Monday, claimed the Islanders try to paint a portrait of themselves as "Saints" and that the referees are buying into it.
"I think they sell a narrative over there that it's more like the New York Saints, not the New York Islanders. They play hard, they play the right way, but I feel we're the same way. And the exact calls that are getting called on us do not get called on them and I don't know why," he said after the loss in which the Islanders scored a trio of power-play goals.
Boston was penalized four times on Monday, while New York received two minor penalties. The bench boss added he's not ready to implement shadier tactics to get the officials' attention.
Maybe we need to sell them more, flop, but that's not us. You'd just hope they see them. I mean the same calls go against us. It's not like I'm sitting there going 'well every call against us sucks,' it's not true. They need to be penalized on those plays. They've done a great job selling that narrative that they're clean ... they commit as many infractions as we do, trust me. It's just a matter of calling them. That's the part that I guess gets frustrating but you play through it.
Cassidy also appeared to reference comments from Islanders head coach Barry Trotz, who complained about the officiating following Game 4, and felt like those words had an impact on Monday's referees.
"Call the game what you see, quit listening to these outside influences and get it done right. I don't think they were great tonight, I'm not going to lie to you, but they have been and they are good officials. I don't know, tonight I just thought they were off."
