Boston's interim coach has a brutal response to a question as to why he didn't challenge an off-sides late in the third period of a loss to the Sharks on Saturday night.
Tied 1-1 with the San Jose Sharks late in the third period on Saturday night at the SAP Center in Northern California, the Boston Bruins were looking to snap a losing streak against the NHL's worst team. For the most part, the Bruins played a good third period, but couldn't solve goalie Alexander Georgiev.
The former Colorado Avalanche netminder stopped 22 of the 23 shots the Black and Gold landed on him and yes, you could make the case that the 2024-25 Boston Bruins don't have the goalscorers in their lineup they have had in previous seasons. That's on general manager Don Sweeney and the front office.
The playoffs at this point are nothing more than a dream for the Bruins and the sooner people realize that, the better off everyone will be. Against the Sharks, however, you have thought that Boston would pick up some points, but think again. How they managed not to do it is rather head-scratching.
Bruins fail to challenge obvious offside on game-winning goal in third period
With just under four minutes remaining in the game, Sharks defenseman Timothy Liljegren carried the puck into the Boston zone and it appeared in real-time that the play was offside with his teammate not tagging up at the blue line before he entered the Bruins zone. The ensuing attacking zone time led to Lucas Carlsson scoring his first goal of the season with 3:23 left in the game.
After the goal was scored, interim coach Joe Sacco called a timeout and was looking at the replay with assistant coach Chris Kelly. Replays appeared to show that the play was offside and it wasn't close.
There appears to be white between the San Jose player attempting to tag up and the blueline with Liljegren clearly having the puck inside the Bruins zone. There was no challenge from the coaching staff and the Sharks ended up picking up a win, 3-1, after scoring an empty-net goal in the final minute. After the game, Sacco told the NESN broadcast,
"From our perspective, the player that was carrying the puck did not have possession… therefore, that other player had the ability to tag up before he got possession again.”
What? The player carrying the puck did not have possession? What are we doing here? Liljegren clearly had possession of the puck as he carried the puck into the zone. It's not even up for debate. It was a perplexing answer, to say the least. Even in real-time, it appeared to be offside. I mean, why not challenge that late in the game? They did it two weeks ago against the Carolina Hurricanes with less time on the clock and a less obvious situation. What changed?
Sacco not challenging the call has people thinking it's a tanking reason as to why they didn't pull the trigger on the challenge. Seriously, what else could it be? There is no way that two months ago they don't challenge that. Heck, there was no way that 16 days earlier in Raleigh they didn't challenge that.
It's a tone-deaf response from Sacco as to why they chose not to challenge. The evidence is in the pictures and if you're going to come up with an excuse as to why you don't challenge, don't insult fans and say the Liljegren never had control of the puck. He did, but hey, on the flip side, the Bruins slightly improved their chances of getting a better lottery pick at the end of the day, which seems to be the narrative coming from above Sacco.
