The New York Islanders-New York Rangers matchup wasn’t without controversy, and it couldn’t have ended more dramatically.
The Islanders were one goal up in the waning seconds of the game. The Rangers controlled the puck in the offensive zone, looking to make it a tied game.
But the puck was tipped by an Islanders player’s stick and up in the air, and Vincent Trocheck was just waiting for it to get back onto the ice at the end of the boards.
As Trocheck tried to coral the puck, he was crushed from behind by Noah Dobson. Trocheck was sent into the boards, and everyone was expecting a penalty call from the referee, who had a great look at the incident.
But there wasn’t a whistle, and the Islanders could instead score to make it 4-2.
Vincent Trocheck was furious about the no-call after the loss and skated to the referees to talk about it.
And Trocheck wasn’t the only one furious about the referees’ decision.
Head coach Peter Laviolette called the hit ’vicious,’ and he couldn’t understand why referee Kelly Sutherland.
”Vicious, from behind,” he said of the Dobson hit. ”It was hard out there tonight having to get through all of that. It was hard, but our guys kept fighting and battling until the end.”
Greg Wyshynski, senior NHL Writer at ESPN, was perhaps even more angry about it.
”How on earth is that not a penalty?! Trocheck was absolutely crushed,” said Wyshynski on X about the hit.
He also called it ’embarrassing.’
”I’m usually not a ’the refs MUST talk to the media’ guy but this is one of those situations that makes me reconsider it. Kelly Sutherland was staring directly at Trocheck and chose not to make a call. Why? How? It’s embarrassing.”
Patrick Roy, head coach of the Islanders, said that Trocheck should’ve ’expected that we were going to go after this one,’ as the puck was in the air during the hit.
