Pittsburgh Penguins team president Brian Burke didn’t agree with the major penalty and game misconduct handed out to forward Brandon Tanev during Tuesday’s 2-1 regulation loss to the Boston Bruins.
Tanev was assessed a five-minute penalty for boarding and was tossed from the game midway through the second period for delivering an open-ice hit that resulted in Bruins defenceman Jarred Tinordi sustaining an upper-body injury.
Burke, who was hired by the Penguins in February, was a guest on Tuesday’s edition of Hockey Central, where he discussed the play with former colleagues Jeff Marek and Justin Bourne.
“If I were still working for Sportsnet, I would have the same view,” Burke said. “If I were working for the Boston Bruins, I would have the same view. That to me is a clean hit.
“I don’t understand the major penalty. I don’t understand the minor penalty. It’s way far away from the boards. It’s not one of those ones where you’re close enough to the boards and far enough away that you’re like, ‘Geez you can’t hit the guy there, you gotta let up.’ It’s a chest-to-chest hit. There’s no shove. There’s no high stick. There’s no elevation. That’s a clean hit all day long for me. It’s not even a minor penalty.”
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Burke was not in attendance at Tuesday’s game but was watching on TV and thought the major penalty would be overturned following a review. But that didn’t happen.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby spoke to reporters and expressed some confusion over how the game was called.
“I hope as players we get some clarity on what’s a good hit and what’s not,” Crosby said during in his post-game media availability. “It’s tough to really gauge when you’re out there. I know it’s fast, but right now, it’s really hard to know what is in fact clean and what’s not. And when you’re out there playing, it’s important that you do know that.”
Prior to Tanev’s hit on Tinordi, Evgeni Malkin was on the receiving end of a Tinordi check that resulted in Malkin leaving the game, yet no penalty was called.
“I don’t think (Tanev) had any intent there,” Crosby said. “I hope Tinordi’s OK. He went in pretty awkward. But I don’t think there was any intent. I thought he hit him clean. He hit him timely as far as the puck being there. (Tinordi) did go in awkwardly, so you never like to see that. But I didn’t think it warranted a five-minute (penalty).”
Tanev scored his team’s lone goal prior to his ejection.
“That’s a clean hit and I’d say the same thing if it was my player that got hit,” Burke added.
The Penguins have gone 13-5-0 since the team hired Burke and new general manager Ron Hextall roughly five weeks ago.
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