Spencer Carbery:Was It Favouritism Or What As NHL Officials Says…
The Washington Capitals fell to the New York Rangers 4-3, but the team’s locker room at Madison Square Garden was left reeling by more than the result of the game.
TJ Oshie was briefly knocked out of the game after a hit to the head by Artemi Panarin in the third period, leading the league’s concussion spotters to pull him for evaluation.
While officials initially assessed Panarin a major penalty to allow for video review, Panarin ultimately got away scot-free — and a call against Connor McMichael for a retaliatory cross-check forced the Capitals onto the penalty kill.
Head coach Spencer Carbery remained unsatisfied with the officials’ reasoning when he spoke to media postgame, pointing out the apparent injury on the play.
They said it wasn’t a minor penalty,” he said. “(That) was the only explanation I got. I asked a few follow-up questions with regards to leaving feet, point of contact, and the one that is tricky is the spotter removes them.
Carbery added, “We watch a video at the beginning of the year of what they’re looking for from concussion symptoms or a hit and who needs to be removed.
So to me though, when the spotters remove him, there has to be some type of contact with the head. So that’s where I was a little bit confused of him being removed by the spotters and then no minor penalty on the ice.
While Carbery tried to be diplomatic, his players were somewhat less so. Tom Wilson criticized Panarin directly, suggesting that he intentionally targeted Oshie with the hit.
“I saw the very tail end of it live. It’s one of those things it looks like he’s going after him a little bit,” he said postgame. “Osh is in a vulnerable spot and he gets him high. I don’t know if he gets him in the head — I don’t know, I haven’t watched it — but it’s one of those hits where everybody stands up. He definitely went after him. So that’s playoff hockey. You’re going to get hit; you’re going to give hits. I think Osh is okay, so that’s the main thing.
Oshie missed just over eight minutes of the third, returning to play with 5:21 left in the game. Although the Capitals killed off McMichael’s cross-checking penalty and Tom Wilson scored on the power-play midway through the period, Washington was unable to complete the comeback effort and now sits 0-2 on the series.
Like Carbery, Dylan Strome expressed a level of frustration with the non-call and wondered whether Panarin could face supplemental discipline from the NHL Department of Player Safety, though he ultimately deferred to the officials’ decision.
“I feel like when you see a guy’s head snap back from the side: obviously Panarin’s I don’t think a dirty player by any means.
But I don’t see how they review it and — it looked to us like he got hit in the head,” Strome said. “I don’t know. It looked like shoulder to the head. The concussion spotters call Oshie out and he has to go off the ice. So we lose him for 10 minutes, whatever it was; we get the only penalty on the play. I don’t know.
“I mean they obviously watched the replay so clearly, they saw it wasn’t penalty worthy. Maybe it was a penalty and maybe it couldn’t be a five because that’s what they were reviewing for.
But those are calls that sometimes go your way, sometimes don’t. I’m not sure if the league will take a look at it. I feel like the refs did, so. It’s in the past now. Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way. We got a penalty and we killed it. Hopefully, Oshie’s okay and then we move on.
The Panarin decision came amidst a trend of arguably inconsistent calls in the series so far. Wilson and Strome both expressed their frustration, noting that they’ve had to adjust over the first two games.
“I don’t want to comment too much on the on the refs,” Wilson said. “It seemed like tonight it was stick penalties: they were letting a lot of the other stuff go but it was anything with the stick they were calling.”
Strome added, “I think it just started from last game. It’s playoffs, first game, my first playoff game with fans and guys are running around and trying to get some hits to get the legs going. And they’re calling penalties right away, like lazy hooking penalties that are just like — they don’t even call those in regular season.
It is what it is. I think they’re trying to avoid the big scrums and a lot of the skirmishes and scrums. Obviously, they’re calling power plays so we’ve got to be aware of that for Game Three. I think it hasn’t been crazy one way or the other. They’re calling a lot. I guess that’s what they’re going with this playoffs. So we’ve got to be aware of that and careful of our sticks and see what happens.”.
Much of the disparity has come down to the pure volume of the penalties called. While the average first-round playoff game in 2023 saw an average of 6.68 power play opportunities, the Capitals and Rangers combined for 11 on Tuesday.
And as Washington’s once-hot power play struggled to capitalize on their opportunities — going 0-4 in Game One and 2-5 in Game Two — those calls cost them. The night ultimately hinged on special teams