Bruins’ Bruce Cassidy Believes ‘Obvious’ Call Was Missed On David Pastrnak

A great scoring chance for the Boston Bruins ended in a scary collision for David Pastrnak.

Prior to Craig Smith’s game-winner that handed the Bruins a double-overtime victory over the Washington Capitals in Game 3 of their Stanley Cup Playoffs series, Boston’s best opportunity after regulation came on a partial breakaway.

But as the right winger attacked the net, two Capitals were close on the heels of his skate. And when Washington forward T.J. Oshie got his stick involved, it sent Pastrnak crashing hard into the boards without a goal to show for it. Or at the very least, a power play or penalty shot.

Head coach Bruce Cassidy thinks the officials missed a call on Oshie.

“Absolutely, I thought they missed that one,” Cassidy said on Zoom after the win. “Two sticks got on, one clearly affected his shot. Listen, I know officials have a tough job and it’s overtime and you want to make sure. But to me, I’ve always felt those are the calls that you almost have to make, right? If a guy’s in all alone it’s a goalscoring chance, an obvious one. I thought they missed that one. Obviously they didn’t feel the same way. Good to see our guys play through it.”

Boston played through it indeed, taking a 2-1 series advantage over Washington.