Barry Trotz claims he does not go down the road Bruce Cassidy did when it comes to referees.
The Bruins head coach was fined $25,000 on Tuesday for comments he made that were critical of the officiating in Game 5 of Boston’s second-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the New York Islanders. From Cassidy’s perspective, the game, which the Bruins lost 5-4, had not been called evenly.
Trotz didn’t have much interest in offering a reaction to what Cassidy said or what the league evidently thought about it. But asked if there is an advantage to “working” the referees, Trotz claimed he never does that.
“I don’t work them, I respect them,” Trotz said over Zoom. “As I said, I worked the referee situation in the bubble last year (during a scrimmage) and I got ran over. I tried to call penalties, I tried to call offsides, I got hit with pucks, I got knocked over, I got all that stuff. I’ve been in the league a long time (and being a ref) is a hard job and I have a lot of respect for those guys. I lived it, I was bruised and battered after the bubble being a referee during our scrimmages.”
Trotz hasn’t really worked the refs through the media this series outside of saying the Islanders were one of the least-penalized teams in the NHL this season. However, he indirectly was working the officials by saying that Patrice Bergeron cheats on faceoffs.
