In the last 2 years, 5/6 coaches that criticized Refereeing have gone to lose the next game. Coincidence or Correlation?
As the Bruins season comes to an end from an absolute thrashing by the New York Saints last night it got me thinking of the comments made by Bruin’s coach Bruce Cassidy after game 5. Cassidy openly criticized the officiating of game 5 and rightfully so. It doesn’t take a veteran of the game for 15+ years to see that the Bruins got bent over on a few calls. And I’m writing this as a die-hard Leafs fan so that says something.
Yet, this made me curious about the other times an NHL coach has also openly criticized the actions of referees in a game. Which had me thinking, is there any chance a coach talking shit about officiating openly to the media has an effect on the next game.
Let’s take a look at the past 2 seasons of NHL coaches who were fined for criticizing Refs:
June 8th, 2021: Cassidy calls out refs for missed calls — results in $25,000 Fine
June 10th — I know, I know this just happened I won’t go much into it. Cassidy calls out refs for terribly one-sided officiating resulting in a hefty $25,000 fine. Bruins play Islanders next game and lose 6–2.
May 22nd, 2021: Brindamoure discusses his displeasure about calls made — $25,000 Fine
Won’t be the first or the last time Rod is on this list, don’t worry he can afford it. On May 22nd Canes lose game 3, 5–4 to the Preds in overtime. On May 23rd the story remains the same as in Game 4 the Canes lose in double overtime 4–3
May 22nd, 2021: Berube calls refs for officiating — Fined $25,000
May 23rd Game 4 of the 2021 playoffs and Berube trying to spark something after being down 0–3 to the Avs openly criticizes the refs in Game 3. The blues would go on to lose game 4 by a score of 5–2
August 19, 2020: Tortella calls out refs for officiating — Fined $25,000
This is just classic Torts what else can I say. Torts calls out officiating when the series is over, I mean I guess they didn’t lose the next game… but they kind of did lose.
August 12th, 2020: Brindamoure calls out refs for officiating — Fined $25,000
And we have a winner! 5th fine to be placed on a coach for being a dick to refs to the media after a game 1 loss to the Bruins Rod the Bod is able to rally the troops and come up with a massive 3–2 win in game 2 against the Bruins.
February 15th, 2020: Julien calls out refs for officiating — Fined $25,000
Last but not least we have Claude rounding out the end of the last 2 seasons of coaches being fined. Claude called out refs on Feb 15th for poor officiating after a loss to the Pens. The Habs would go on to play Dallas on Feb 18 and lose to the Red Wings.. which was hard to do in the 2019–20 season if we're being honest I mean they only won 17 games.
In my mind this begs the question, do players feel that the refs “owe” them a few calls and they become complacent? Are players at more risk to embellish or give up on a play in order to gain a make-up call from the night before? Is it just a completely random coincidence that I’m pulling literally out of thin air? Could it be some sort of hex Bettman has learned from the infamous Jose Theodore?
We may never really know but, within the 2019–20 & 2020–21 season 5 out of the 6 incidents of coaches shit talking the officiating in a game have gone on to lose the next game. And you know what, I thought that was pretty damn interesting.
