Jeff Blashill, Tyler Bertuzzi, Connor Murphy Look for Answers from Refs in Blackhawks’ Loss

Jeff Blashill, Tyler Bertuzzi, Connor Murphy Look for Answers from Refs in Blackhawks’ Loss

guys lost the energy and connection. Do you agree with that assessment or uh yeah, 100%. I I would say um you know, they’re on the back half of back to back. We go up two nothing. That’s where you just can’t give them life, you know, and I thought we got passive in the second period. Way too passive as the period went along. Started with that power play. Uh we take a penalty on it. Uh and then from there, I thought our second was was was poor. So I think and this not disrespectful to them cuz I thought you know they clawed their way back into two games in a row. So so good for them but I I just felt like um you know we kind of gave them life when we didn’t need to and that’s a huge kind of learning thing for us and you know we should have been able to walk out of this game with two points. Uh given that you have the two nothing lead. They’re on the back of back to back on a tough trip. Um you have to find a way not to give them life once you get that lead and unfortunately we didn’t do that. you knew the riskreward of the challenge. What What did you see on that? Yeah, you know, I was uh well, first off, I’d say I challenged again 10 out of 10. Um now, maybe, you know, I haven’t got an explanation yet for for why, uh it wasn’t overturned, so maybe when I hear that, um that’ll change my mind. Um I think when you look through the league, if you don’t push the goalie’s pad in, it’s generally a goal, you know. So, I’m not sure, but I’m just I’ll wait to hear. I’ll have to call somebody uh there and just get some explanation. I never heard any reason why, so it’s hard for me to comment beyond that, but I was challenging it 100% and I challenge it again tomorrow. You started overtime with three righties and then immediately went to three lefties when you could get those guys off. Was that intentional? No, it’s more the combo of those guys, you know, Frankie and and and Connor and uh and it’s unfortunate in reins. unfortunate cuz I thought we competed on that face off and we didn’t come up with that puck and then it felt like the whole overtime we never had the puck and a little bit we did. Uh I got to watch again almost felt like we might have given that one away. So um and they did a good job kind of controlling the puck changing they out changed us because they had full control and so those changed their heart but it wasn’t anything intentional that way. No. What’ you make of the panel just killing off those last two? I was impressed, you know, um those are two big kills obviously, you know, and and uh they knew the stakes after the challenge for sure. We kind of talked about it uh uh you know, as they’re going out there and I thought they they did a really good job, you know, Van had some looks there. We we couldn’t get it clear on the second one, so that’s hard when you when you’re in your end that long. Um but but guys I thought did an excellent job of like grinding away and find a way to kill it. And that’s those are, you know, again, I’m super disappointed we didn’t get two points, but I’d be really disappointed if we didn’t get any. And so that, you know, the penalty kill allowed us to get a point. What do you think of Spencer? Yeah, he was good again. You know, I think our goalending has been really good. Um, I think we’ve been very, very fortunate to have really, really good goalending. I think, uh, you know, we got to make sure we do a job and not giving up lots of chances. Didn’t feel like there’s many tonight, you know, in terms of great A’s. U, but night in and night out, uh, both Spencer and Sod have been really good. What do you think it’ll take to kind of curb the high number of penalties this team has taken? Yeah, that’s a that’s a real issue, you know, like um probably learning like so what happens is you know sometimes like you’re trying hard and you just got to learn when you don’t have body position you can’t reach. That’s probably our biggest issue if you look around like the high stick penalty is tough on Rex like that’s just a tough one. Obviously a challenge is one of them so that’s on us. Um, but the other ones, you know, it just feels like there’s been too many times this year where we don’t have body position in your reach. And the minute you get around somebody one way or the other, if you do anything to them, you’re just in a bad spot, you’re giving a ref a real chance to make a call. So, um, you know, it’s it’s something we’ve addressed and we’ll have to continue to address and we’ve got to get better at it. We I think our guys are understanding like you can’t win that way. So, now we we got to put that into action. What was your perspective on the literal goal? Uh, I won’t comment. I’ll probably get fined. So, I think it was not that great of a call. What I think, what’ you guys think of what you were able to do for most of this game, though? Uh, in the first we were really good. Um, and then kind of we had a good start to the second and after that, we kind of fell off. Um, I don’t know, we we lost energy. We lost uh our our connection. We weren’t uh being direct and simple and um we kind of lost the game for ourselves. Have you killed up the team performance, you know, overall, you know, after that? You feel like in the third period with the pen kill? Yeah, I mean, our kill was great. It’s been great all year. Um, it kept us in games. Um, our power play needs to be better. Uh, we need to start scoring and give ourselves uh more of a chance. Um, but PK’s been good. Um, we got to stop being, you know, just happy with one point cuz we kind of, you know, blew that one away. actually been a win for us tonight. Got some time with the daughter and Bakovski later on in the game. Felt like you guys fared pretty well. What were your thoughts on you guys’ performance? Yeah, I thought we kind of created a little bit um you know, had our scoring chances and um you know, things are going to happen and people are going to be moved around um so early in the season that uh everyone’s going to get a chance with each other and just see who’s uh who’s going. What do you make of Spencer Knight’s night? Yeah. No, I mean him and Sod, they have been really good for us all year. Um, it’s like our penalty code. They they’ve kept us in games and given us a chance to win and that’s all you can ask um from them and um you know we got to start scoring and uh you know be be better for them. Is it doubly frustrating the way this ended after all that? Yeah, I would say we g we didn’t stack the odds in our favor with that game. We’ve had good things in the first and games before, but we didn’t do enough to win and deserve to win at the end of that. What were you thinking when the goal was tonight? Oh, when the we were challenged. I thought it was going to be I I thought it was going to be counted. I like that we challenged it. Um it seemed like the refs, Kelly’s explanation to me was um that the puck was partially covered. So, they looked at that as a dead puck even though the whistle still wasn’t blown. So, I understand the ruling, but more I’ve just seen a lot of goals in this league, even against as a D man, you’re battling and your goalie’s got a half under equipment and a guy just gives one poke and the puck goes in. I didn’t see their goalie’s pad go in. It was more the puck first. So, I thought it easily could have been counted the other way, too. But, um, you just don’t know sometimes you get caught what the ref sees going one way or the other. What was it like being out there for that kill at the end of the whole? It was motivating just cuz you know the game’s on the line and you know um we’re pushing to win uh with that challenge and you like the aggression and want to see us pushed overtime and regain energy from a kill and from the crowd to be able to push overtime and we never ended up getting a lot of possession to really get momentum into overtime at the end. How do you feel about the team performance overall? Overall not not good enough from us. Um it’s not good enough just to go up with the lead. uh Blash talks about all the time about how hard it is to win in this league and uh to not put together enough of a push to take a team’s will away when you have them down against the ropes is uh is a big difference in winning and losing. So, it’s a learning lesson and um like I said to start at we didn’t do enough to earn the win um that we should have gotten. It felt like you guys I mean was minimized the quality and the quantity that they were able to create tonight. Uh at times, yeah, it’s just it’s just momentum shifts more than that though. It’s penalties and it’s uh stick battles, turnovers, things that lead to momentum shifts more than it does chances. And then that eventually you’re either not getting the chances to put them away at home when you can or you’re just uh killing down the clock and giving a game to chance, which in order to win, we just don’t want to leave games to chance at home. How good was Spencer Knight in the third? Yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, especially in the kill. I mean, there’s a lot of those plays, scrambles around the net, it’s not easy to goalie keeper composure and find pucks and sticks. Um, so he was big and uh big reason why it seemed like we were able to push till that shootout is because he’s able to stand up uh when we’re kind of on our heels.

The Chicago Blackhawks loss to the Vancouver Canucks was littered with questionable calls and a lack of explanation from the referees. Head Coach Jeff Blashill speaks after the game about his challenge call and the abundance of penalties at the United Center. Also hear from Tyler Bertuzzi and Connor Murphy for the explanations they received from the referees.

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0:00 Jeff Blashill
3:53 Tyler Bertuzzi
5:36 Connor Murphy