Craig Berube Questions Officiating in Stanley Cup Finals

During the Stanley Cup playoffs, the officials call less penalties and allow more to go unpunished. What’s a penalty during the regular season, isn’t always a penalty during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. We’ve already established that during the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the officiating has been subpar.

Refs are human, and humans make mistakes. Every one of us can come up with two or three examples of blown calls. That’s hockey. Teams have to play through the adversity if they want to win the Stanley Cup.

Sammy Blais gets some revenge on David Backes pic.twitter.com/uPm5WFYYwx

— Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) June 2, 2019

During Sunday’s off day press conference, St. Louis Blues head coach Craig Berube grumbled about the officiating and the number of the penalties his team has been assessed during the final.

“We were the least penalized team in the league in the first three rounds, now all of a sudden we’ve taken (17) penalties in one series,” Berube said. “So I don’t know. … I think that we could definitely be more composed after the whistle.

“I think we’ve let some frustration get in there where we maybe do too much after the whistle. So we’ll clean that up, for sure. But like I said, we were the least penalized team in the league coming into this series. I don’t agree with all of the calls.”

Wow, that’s fresh.

Let’s take a look at the game stats. During game three, the Blues went 1/5 on the man advantage and the Bruins went 4/4. Wait, what? The Blues were given more man advantages than the Boston Bruins. Maybe, Berube should be more upset with his penalty kill and power play than the officiating.

Here’s an interesting statistic, during the Stanley Cup Final, the Bruins are six for 14 on the man advantage (42.8). The Blues are one for 10 on the man advantage (10.0).

Here’s one thing to consider. The Blues have tried to bait the Bruins and run them out of the building. So far, the Bruins haven’t taken the bait.

Berube has his players amped up, throwing seek-and-destroy hits. Now argues about being assessed penalties. Disjointed narrative.

— Kevin Paul Dupont (@GlobeKPD) June 2, 2019

Imagine if Brayden Schenn had connected.

Brayden Schenn still hasn’t landed after this collision with David Pastrnak pic.twitter.com/C5qYRwrXmY

— Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) June 2, 2019