BOSTON — As the Bruins’ de facto captain, David Pastrnak used the position’s ability to speak to the officials as a chance to give the referees a piece of his mind in overtime.
With Brad Marchand gone and Charlie McAvoy still injured, Pastrnak is the only player with a letter (an A) on his jersey. So after Marat Khusnutdinov was called for tripping, 3:59 into overtime, he animatedly protested to no avail.
He was even more angry when Buffalo scored the game-winner with 10.6 seconds left to send Boston to a 3-2 loss.
Pastrnak didn’t like that they made a call against the Bruins after what he thought could have been penalties on Buffalo were been overlooked. Then while the Bruins killed the penalty, Pastrnak thought they missed a chance to make things even when Joonas Korpisalo was slashed.
“I felt like if anyone should have gotten a power play in overtime it should have been us,” Pastrnak said. “That’s just my opinion. That’s why I was mad. Then Korpi got slashed when he had covered the puck twice on the power play. They could have evened it up and they decided to look away.”
Bruins interim coach Joe Sacco had no issue with the call on Khusnutdinov in a vacuum, but like Pastrnak, the lack of consistency concerned him.
“I thought it was a penalty, but before that Mason had a 2-on-1 and he got slashed on his hands down there before that,” Sacco said. “That’s what I saw from my standpoint.”
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