The National Hockey League and the Boston Bruins have not been seeing eye to eye when it comes to officiating in these Stanley Cup Playoffs and that trend continued on Sunday.
First let's get to the big news of the day. The NHL's Department of Player Safety announced on Sunday that it would be issuing a $5,000 fine to Bruins forward David Krejci for what they deemed a slash. The slash was delivered to New York Islanders star forward Mathew Barzal during Game 4 of the second round Stanley Cup Playoff series between the Bruins and Islanders and it came in response to a series of cross checks from Barzal to the back of Krejci.
The Bruins were none too pleased with the officiating in Game 4, something that head coach Bruce Cassidy even went out of his way to outline in his comments following the loss, and I suspect that they won't be thrilled about Krejci's fine either. In the grand scheme of things $5,000 is not the end of the world for an NHL player, but it could see him judged as a repeat offender if he becomes involved in any other incidents in the near future.
Krejci did not respond to the news of today's fine but I think we can get a pretty good idea of how he feels about it by looking at the comments he made in regards to the slash following the game. Krejci effectively accused Barzal of taking a dive on the play, seemingly indicating that he hadn't hit the Islanders forward that hard in response to the cross checks he was receiving from him.
"Obviously wasn't happy about it," said Krejci is regards to the cross checks. "He went down pretty easily. It is what it is."
Barzal on the other hand had a very different take on things and insisted that he was indeed hurt as a result of the slash from Krejci. In fact Barzal's comments would indicate that he felt there was some intent behind the blow from the Bruins veteran forward.
"I'm alright now, I was a little surprised, I haven't seen the clip, I felt it was a little vicious," said Barzal in response to the slash.
