Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney spoke with the media just after noon today ahead of his team’s departure to Florida before Game Five of their second-round series against the Panthers. Sweeney discussed many topics in his press conference, albeit not as expected by Bruins fans.
The press conference, which took place at Hanscom Air Base, began with Don Sweeney addressing his stance on the officiating in this series. Sweeney stated, “We’re not in a position to criticize the officials. That’s standard protocol and we’ll get fined as a result of that. So there’s no intention on my part to be critical.”
Sweeney discussed a further gripe with the situation, chastising the media for posing questions to Head Coach Jim Montgomery about the officiating. “We should not be asking the coach (about officiating) and what happens. (The media) should be focused on what we didn’t do well enough over the course of the game to win the hockey game.”
Sweeney then took made a brief jab at the league, saying, “Those questions should be directed at either the Director of Supervising, Supervisor of Officials, and/or the officials. You want full access or transparency, then put the officials in front of a microphone…The people who make that decision should be answering questions about how they interpreted it.”
When pressed on Sam Bennett’s sucker punch of Brad Marchand, Sweeney said that the ‘smoking gun’ angle on the play (seen below) wasn’t provided to the team until last night. He did take somewhat of a shot at the Department of Players Safety when he subtly urged them to come out and make a formal statement regarding the Bennett punch.
There was some good news that came out of today’s press conference, namely, the health of Bruins captain Brad Marchand. He stated that Marchand skated this morning and will be making the trip to Sunrise, FL. When pressed about his leading playoff scorers’ availability ahead of Game Five, Sweeney said Marchand is still day-to-day but is feeling better.
Press Conference Notes
- Pat Maroon also spoke to the media and said the team needs to get more ‘pucks on net’.
- When asked about the lack of offense the Bruins have produced over the last several games, Sweeney noted that they aren’t a ‘high shot volume team.’
- Game Five is scheduled for tomorrow at 7:00 PM on ESPN.
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