Montgomery Explains Why He Was So Excited Behind the Bruins Bench in Game 5 originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston
Boston Bruins coach Jim Montgomery appeared upset with the Florida Panthers’ attempt to draw penalties in Tuesday night’s Game 5 flopping and diving, and he had a funny way of expressing this displeasure to the referees.
TV cameras caught Montgomery doing his own thing behind the Bruins bench in an attempt to show the referees what he thought the Panthers were doing to get undeserved power plays.
As you can imagine, these videos quickly went viral and became the focus of some funny memes.
Fortunately for the Bruins, those penalties didn’t cost them dearly. Boston’s penalty was 4 for 4, helping the Original Six club win 2-1 and force a Game 6 in Boston on Friday night.
After the game, Montgomery was asked about his animated response to some of the penalties awarded to his team.
“Well, I think in the league in general, embellishments (are) on the rise,” Montgomery said. “Players are getting better at grabbing the head, throwing it back, getting hooked, following through with the hook and jumping back.
“When I was growing up, Billy Barber was the guy best known for it and he scored a lot of penalties because of it. And I just think it makes things harder for referees, you know? Because you don’t know if a guy was actually arrested or if he was just trying to get a call.”
The Panthers were called for a beautification penalty in Game 5 when Anton Lundell was hit by Morgan Geekie in the first period. Lundell (embellishment) and Geekie (crosscheck) went to the box for two minutes.
Beautify or dive has helped Florida get several power plays in this series. A good example happened in game 4 when Panthers defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson threw his head back in the third period and called an interference penalty on Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm. There was minimal contact, but the Panthers got a power play, which they took advantage of when Sam Bennett scored controversially.
Will Montgomery’s comments have any impact on Game 6 officiating? Either way, the Bruins need to do a better job of staying out of the penalty box. They were shorthanded 25 times in the second round, more than any other team remaining in the playoffs.
