WASHINGTONBlaming the referees has always been viewed as a losers lament.
But thats before all-powerful NHL owners were able to openly complain about the leagues officiating in their own personal blog.
Capitals owner Ted Leonsis took to the Internet Thursday before Game 4 against the Bruins and warned his team it needed to remain disciplined and remember that the defending Stanley Cup champs will always get the benefit of the doubt.
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But the Caps didnt stop there.
Washington coach Dale Hunter painted the Bruins as crossing the line while targeting Nicklas Backstroms head through the first three games, and brought attention to a legitimately erroneous offside call in Game 3 that helped lead directly to Zdeno Charas game-winning goal in the third period.
So it was pretty clear the Bruins werent going to get the benefit of the doubt at the Verizon Center in Game 4, and thats pretty much how it played out for the Black and Gold.
The Capitals had three power plays to Bostons one (and the Bruins didn't get theirs until 50 minutes had elapsed.) But a pair of subtle events shaped the game even more from a refereeing point of view: A non-call early in the game led to the Caps first goal, and a borderline penalty to Patrice Bergeron set up Alex Semins game-winning sniper shot in the second period.
The play that resulted in the first goal started with a bouncing free puck in the neutral zone. Alex Ovechkin jumped on Andrew Ferences back and basically tackled the Bruins defensemen with the puck far away from them. But there was no interference call for Ovie, just as there was no call on him when he cross-checked Dennis Seidenberg in the face earlier in the series in in Boston. Instead Zdeno Chara was caught out of position trying to recover, and Marcus Johansson cashed in on a 2-on-1 with Brooks Laich to put the Caps up by a 1-0 score.
The Bruins eventually evened it up in the first period on a Rich Peverley goal that escaped Braden Holtby, but once again the referees provided the equalizer in the second period.
Patrice Bergeron was whistled for a very questionable hooking call that resulted in Laich flinging his stick out of his hands while patrolling the front of the Washington net.
Im obviously going to say I didnt think it was a penalty because I was on the bad side of it, said Bergeron. I thought there were some plays during the game that were kind of the same. Its playoff hockey. But I had to move on because the referee made the call. It happens fast for me and for him. Im obviously not going to complain about it.
Fifty seconds later Semin had smoked a wrist shot past Tim Thomas glove hand and the Capitals had their game-winning score to even the series at 2-2 headed back to Boston.
So two goals aided by the referees helped deliver victory to Washington, and should slow down Leonsis and Co. from any more keystrokes questioning the league for at least a couple of days.