It was an odd moment in the Montreal versus Philadelphia game Thursday night. With the game tied 2-2 in the third period, the Canadiens iced the puck, leading to a faceoff in their defensive zone. Following an icing, the ensuing faceoff is supposed to take place as quickly as possible, essentially a punishment for the team that took the icing call. Head coach Claude Julien claims he thought the puck was touched at centre ice and had made a line change before the call was made. The team then took its time trying to figure out who was supposed to the back on the ice for the faceoff. Seemingly fed up and the time it was taking, the referee called a minor penalty against the Habs for delay of game, leading to Julien screaming on the bench. You can view the full incident below.
Following the game, which the Flyers won 3-2 in overtime, Julien expressed his frustration with the call, as well as the officiating in general, and said the referees need to take responsibility for what happened.
"Well first of all, the first reaction was that it was touched at centre ice. I think everyone sees that on the replay. But then they say, ‘Okay, so it's icing.' Now you get into ‘What's the rule?' You gotta put the same guys on the ice. I'm trying to put the same guys back on the ice and they're not letting me. And I'm telling him that, ‘You want the guys that are on the ice, I'm giving you the guys.' And he gives me a delay of game penalty."
"Honestly, I can take a lot of responsibility: Our three Ds on the ice, we had too many men. And most of the penalties tonight—they were penalties. Slashing, hooking, this and that. So we take responsibility for that. But there's a point there that they've got to take certain responsibilities, and what's disappointing me is after that, I don't know if they felt embarrassed but they made sure that we weren't going to get any breaks. The stick to (Jonathan) Drouin's face that everybody saw, (the official) saw it. I know he saw it and decided not to call it."
"So I was disappointed in the way it was handled after (the delay of game penalty), and if we embarrassed them, maybe they embarrassed themselves by not letting us do the job that we're supposed to do by putting the right guys on the ice."
