BOSTON — The Bruins might not have won Thursday night, but they did have a challenge go in their favor.
The Blue Jackets appeared to go up 1-0 just 17 seconds after the puck dropped, but Boston challenged for goaltender interference, the referees agreed and disallowed the goal.
Challenges haven’t been too kind to the B’s this season, especially when it comes to overturning goal, so the Black and Gold were happy to have it go their way.
“We actually talked about it on the bench, wondering if we were going to get the call or not,” Torey Krug said after the game. “It’s nice to get it.”
“Finally, we won a challenge, right?,” David Pastrnak added. “That was kind of a good boost to start the game.”
Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella was fined a hefty $20,000 for sharply criticizing the officials after his team’s loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday. And while the reversal of the call potentially could have led to another classic Tortorella rant, Bruce Cassidy said he would challenged the call regardless of opponent.
“That (fine) has nothing to do with the challenge,” the B’s head coach said. “The challenge, Goalie Bob (Essensa) felt Tuukka (Rask) was interfered with. We would have challenged that whether we were playing Columbus or Edmonton. So no, it was more about we felt he had interfered with his stick and his body position, it wasn’t pushed in. That’s obviously the way he saw it.”
While it was encouraging to see a call go the B’s way, the team likely would have preferred the two points Thursday night.
