Bruce Cassidy insists his ire Monday night was directed more so to the New York Islanders than it was the officials.
Nevertheless, he is $25,000 lighter in the wallet, with the NHL fining the Boston Bruins head coach Tuesday for remarks he made following his team’s loss to the Islanders.
Cassidy on Tuesday had the opportunity to address the matter.
“Most of what I thought I said was more in reference to the Islanders, the whole gamesmanship, Barry with his comments toward (Patrice Bergeron),” Cassidy said over Zoom. “I’m always going to protect my captain and kind of push back a little bit. Listen, we’re in front of the cameras a lot, the media, it’s an entertainment business, it’s been a good series so there’s a little bit of that back-and-forth. So, that’s where a lot of that was directed.
“Obviously, I felt there were some calls that didn’t go our way that have gone against us when it comes to high-sticks — I know there was specifically one on (Chris) Wagner, there was definitely one on Bergy last night behind the net with (Brock) Nelson and it didn’t get called, I voiced that. I was held accountable for it. Usually when you get fined you say something to the effect of ’embarrassing’ or a ‘joke’ and I didn’t say any of that. I actually think those two officials are excellent officials, I thought they missed a couple high-sticks along the way in this series. I pointed that out, we’re told before that we have to keep our comments civil. I thought it was, they didn’t see it that way. I’ve got a lot of respect for … the NHL front office, that’s the way he saw it and we’ll move on from that.
“Will that have an affect going forward? I’ve said any comments shouldn’t. The refs should call what they see, I think I said that, as well. So it’s a little bit about being asked a question after the game, I answered it as honestly as I could and that’s it. That’s what I have to say about that, and I’ll start answering questions about Game 6 and how we can be better.”
The Bruins and Islanders will play Game 6 on Wednesday. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. ET at Nassau Coliseum. NESN will have a full hour of pregame and postgame coverage, plus intermission reports on NESN.com.
