Blues' Craig Berube criticizes Stanley Cup officiating

The special teams prowess of the Boston Bruins has proved impactful already in the Stanley Cup Final, figuring prominently into the team’s 2-1 series lead. The Bruins went a perfect 4-for-4 with the man advantage in a Game 3 win, and have scored at least one power play goal in every game of the series.

It seems like a pretty logical conclusion to make that the St. Louis Blues need to be more disciplined in their approach, but head coach Craig Berube doesn’t quite see it that way.

“I don’t buy into all of that, to be honest with you,” Berube said in Sunday’s media availability. “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.”

The numbers paint a dramatically different picture of the Blues than the previous three series showed. They have already given up 14 power plays through three games, a phenomenon Berube explains at least partly with some questionable officiating.

“We were the least penalized team in the league coming into this series, so I don’t agree with all the calls.”

The Blues had indeed averaged less than three penalties per game in the previous three rounds of play, but have seen that number balloon to 5.7 against the Bruins.

The Bruins have made them pay dearly, scoring six times in three games, finding the net in 42.8 percent of their chances. Play at 5-on-5 has been mostly even otherwise, and both teams have scored 5 goals at even strength.

Berube and the Blues have had plenty of opportunities to critique officiating throughout their playoff run. Timo Meier’s hand pass in overtime during the Western Conference Final was an egregious miss, and the Blues were short a man in Game 3 due to a one-game suspension to key penalty killer Oscar Sundqvist.

Now that the way the whistles go is shaping up as the difference in the series, Berube is doing what he can to tilt things in his team’s favour.

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