Things aren’t clicking for the Pittsburgh Penguins at the moment. They lost Tuesday’s matchup with the Nashville Predators in overtime.
But it was controversial, as many thought the game-deciding goal, scored by Filip Forsberg, shouldn’t have counted.They believed the Penguins should’ve been on a power play instead.
The Penguins were furious with the officiating all night.
When the Predators won the game, head coach Mike Sullivan was clearly upset on the bench, first shaking his head, followed by some screaming at the referees.
The Pens were angry at several penalty calls during the game. Nashville took a 2-0 lead in the first period, but the Penguins came back and, via goals from Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust, the game was tied.
However, between the 2-1 and 2-2 goals, the Pens had to kill off a couple of penalties.
Marcus Pettersson was called for a controversial holding, and every Penguins player disputed it.
When the referee announced the call on a hot mic, defenseman Kris Letang skated by to let him know how he felt about it, and it led to a hilarious moment as the ref skated after Letang, still with his hot mic on, saying, ‘You wanna join him?’
NHL fans always love it when referees’ chirps get on a hot mic, and the video of the referee threatening Letang quickly went viral on social media.
However, the Penguins didn’t think the referees were funny, as the decision not to call a penalty on Ryan O’Reilly in overtime cost them the extra point.
O’Reilly got away with stopping Sidney Crosby at the blue line while Forsberg swooped into the Pens’ zone, eventually beating Tristan Jerry to give the Predators the win.
Postgame, Sullivan was asked if he was surprised no call was made and if he had a look at it.
”Yes and yes,” he said shortly.
Later, he added, ”It’s a game-changing moment, right?”
