The Montreal Canadiens stole a point in Philadelphia on Thursday, coming out with a 3-2 overtime loss, mostly thanks to the solid play of goaltender Carey Price.  While head coach Claude Julien had his goaltender to thank for earning the club a point, he was quick to point a finger at the officials, frustrated with the penalty calls and with one particular icing.

There were five icings in the game, but the one that came midway through the third period was the one that set off Canadiens head coach Claude Julien.

The puck appears to have been tipped at center ice, possibly behind the red line.  Without the benefit of replay, though, the determination by the on-ice officials would have to stand.

Julien disputed the icing ruling, but found himself more frustrated on the penalty call, especially since he was trying to go by the book.

“First of all, the first reaction was that it was touched at center ice,” said Julien. “I think everyone sees that on the replay. But then they say, ‘Okay, so it’s icing.’

“Now you get into ‘What’s the rule?’ You gotta put the same guys on the ice.  I’m trying to put the same guys back on the ice and they’re not letting me. And I’m telling him that, ‘You want the guys that are on the ice, I’m giving you the guys.’ And he gives me a delay of game penalty.”

While a replay of the game was not available at time of publication, the official scorer had forwards Max Domi, Paul Byron, and Artturi Lehkonen on the ice with Ben Chiarot and Jeff Petryat the time of the icing. Joel Armia was on the ice instead of Domi when the penalty was called.

In addition to the icing call and subsequent delay of game penalty, Julien’s Habs found themselves on the wrong end of a lopsided penalty sheet.  Montreal picked up six penalties in the game, while the Flyers stayed out of the box completely.  Habs blueliner Shea Weber was also called for hooking Carsen Twarynski on a breakaway, resulting in a penalty shot.  The Flyers went 0-for-6 on the power play and failed to convert on the penalty shot attempt.

This was just the seventh time in Philadelphia Flyers history that the team went unpenalized for an entire game according to hockey-reference.com. They managed the same feat twice last season, against the Leafs in November and versus the Kings in February.

Though he was frustrated with certain calls, Habs head coach Claude Julien admitted that his team’s lack of skating contributed to their penalty woes.

“We took some penalties, stick penalties, hooking, slashing and that kind of stuff,” Julien admitted. “Those are penalties you take when you’re not moving your legs.”

Julien refocused on the officials.

“There’s a point there that [the officials have] to take certain responsibilities, and what’s disappointing me is after that, I don’t know if they felt embarrassed but they made sure that we weren’t going to get any breaks. The stick to Drouin’s face that everybody saw, [the referee] saw it. I know he saw it and decided not to call it. I’m not sold necessarily on the ruling of the penalty shot.  I’m not sold on that either.

“I was disappointed in the way it was handled after [the delay of game penalty]. If we embarrassed them, maybe they embarrassed themselves by not letting us do the job that we’re supposed to do by putting the right guys on the ice.”

 

Referees for the game were Peter MacDougall (#38) and Francis Charron (#6). Linesmen were Vaughan Rody (#73) and Darren Gibbs (#66).