The ref had enough of Brendan Gallagher Saturday night at Bell Centre.
Gallagher was frustrated with several missed calls by the officials that led to the Dallas Stars rallying from a 3-0 deficit to beat Montreal 4-3 in overtime on Saturday. The Habs didn’t get a single power play in the game and lost a crucial point in the playoff race.
After the game, Gallagher could be seen ripping into referee Dean Morton and slamming his stick into the boards in frustration.
Brendan Gallagher did not like the way the game ended in Montreal pic.twitter.com/KdW1oiMOCb
— Dennis Bernstein (@DennisTFP) February 16, 2020
The Habs were primarily upset with three major plays that went unpenalized. Ilya Kovalchuk had his stick broken by a slash in the first period that wasn’t called. In overtime, a trip on Joel Armia went unpenalized and Max Domi was high-sticked in the mouth and bleeding without any call.
After Tyler Seguin scored a filthy overtime goal to win the game for Dallas, Gallagher went over to the ref and ripped into him. TVA Sports captured video and audio of referee Dean Morton clearly telling a complaining Brendan Gallagher “to go f*ck yourself”
Montreal Canadiens head coach Claude Julien also ripped into the refs in a post-game tirade, saying the Habs “had to beat two teams”.
“We’re up 3-0, we’re playing well, ” Julien said. “We make a bad mistake and give them the puck on the first goal. But in those situations after that we could have had power plays…there’s so many…it was such a poorly managed game, let’s put it that way. I think (the stick slash on) Kovalchuk gets an automatic penalty, that slash. And I think on Chariot, if you look at the penalty, or the replay, he gets tripped and he gives a one-hand slash, so we get the slash and no trip. Armia — if that’s a hook, well then in overtime there should have been a penalty on him. Max, in overtime there, gets a stick in the mouth, he’s bleeding from the mouth, there’s no penalty there. Like I said, (the officials) looked frustrated, or one of them looked frustrated tonight — the referee. He should have been, because to me it was embarrassing. I can’t say anything else. We have taken responsibility for some of our stuff and when we’re not good I’m going to stand up here and say we weren’t good enough tonight. Well, tonight we had to beat two teams and it was tough.”
Max Domi actually did his post-game with his lip still bleeding, likely to make a point about the poor officiating.
Max Domi sur une difficile défaite en prolongation.#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/R7oDa9x2M3
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) February 16, 2020
It’s not clear as of now if Claude Julien or Dean Morton will face any supplementary discipline for their actions on Saturday.
It’s no surprise Gallagher and the Canadiens were upset with the officiating when you consider there’s no margin for error for the Habs in the playoff race. Montreal is currently nine points back of both the Flyers and Blue Jackets for the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.