Grind: A brutal blunder by Geno, but bad officiating, too
Good Friday morning!
• Evgeni Malkin's major penaltyfor slashing, a reckless, ridiculous hack across the head/neck of the Sabres' Rasmus Dahlin that'll likely earn him an NHL suspension, was the correct call.
But the officiating, overall, both on the ice and in the Toronto replay room, was beyond brutal. Even within that same sequence.
And yeah, all of that can be true.
Listen, I’ve got no clue if this game could’ve been competitive if it'd been competently refereed, the Penguins' 5-1 loss to the Sabres on this Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena, but it sure would’ve been fun to find out. It was a matchup of two of the league's hottest teams, a rematch of a Pittsburgh victory in Buffalo a month ago that had left the losers vocally sore and ... well, it merited a hell of a lot better than it got from Furman South and Brandon Blandina, two Robert Morris University graduates who earned every boo, every derisive chant that rained down from the 17,572 on hand for nearly the entire evening.
Rather read about the game?
Well, these guys were the game.
Chances were traded, as were short-handed, full-flight goals by Ryan McLeod and Bryan Rust, in a fast-paced first period that promised more. At which point the Geno thing happened in the opening minute of the second:
I'll repeat, and emphatically: Geno blew it. Bad decision. Bad sportsmanship. Bad everything. He deserved the major, the ejection and, if it's a game or two, he'll have deserved the supplementary discipline sure to follow.
Now, having said that, and without interpreting any of what I'm about to point out as a defense of that specific act ... watch the run-up to what happened. Best view's in the first replay shown up there, the angle from below the goal line:
1. Dahlin whacks at Geno's glove in the high slot, causing Geno to shake his hand, one he'd continue shaking even upon heading down the tunnel after being tossed.
That's a slash. No call.
2. Dahlin follows Geno to the net and raises his shaft, with force, against the upper back.
That's a high stick. No call.
3. Dahlin now two-hands, with far greater force, Geno across the right side and into the net.
That's a cross-check. No call.
And through it all, watch South, the referee wearing No. 13, earning all over again his reputation for being just plain awful, watching all three of what I just listed without his right arm so much as flinching ... until Geno does his dumb thing.
That's utterly indefensible.
Rest assured, no one else will show the whole thing, only the slash and a sad-faced Dahlin:
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
You know, a point of pride for a good official is that their top priority is the safety of the athletes. South seemed set to watch damned near anything take place in that sequence, and that subsequently froze him up to the point where he could react only to a borderline crime.
That's trash. Sheer trash. No game should be reffed that way at any level of this great sport.
But wait ...
The Penguins challenged the Sabres' 2nd goal of the game for goaltender interference but the ruling was good goal 🫣 pic.twitter.com/nc4xpnEGAp
If I'd landed here from Pluto earlier in the day, and someone had read out loud to me the NHL's actual rule -- in Swahili! -- I'd have been able to discern that Josh Doan, No. 91 for the Buffalo side, had a skate in the blue paint as his chest pretty much engulfed Arturs Silovs' mask before the rebound that pops out for what'd become the decisive goal.
And no, Kris Letang laying a single hand on Doan's upper back hardly causes him to crash like that, then strike the innocent flamingo-like pose. He's in there.
That's goaltender interference. No call.
And upon replay review, of course, no overturn. Meaning Dan Muse, who'd have to be either a rookie head coach in the NHL being initiated as if it's a half-century ago, or he'd be the hockey dope to end all hockey dopes to be 0-7 in challenging such calls this season.
He lost it on these guys ...
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
... and I don't blame him a bit. It's not like he's gaining street cred by staying stoic.
This is the one that really rattled the crowd, too. They've been watching this all winter and, even though it's hardly been limited to Pittsburgh, it can sure feel like it.
Especially to those impacted.
"Honestly, I can't even tell you what it is now," Ryan Shea would tell me when I asked him what goaltender interference is. "I saw one go against us in the Rangers game, and I saw another one later that night somewhere that was totally different. It looks like, for every other team, the guy barely gets grazed, and it's a no-goal. But I guess, for us, it's not working in our favor."
This one was more egregious than most, as Muse would acknowledge in explaining his stance in yet another futile challenge: “My view is, on goalie interference, because their player skated into the blue paint, made contact with our goalie, which affected the play, which is the rule ... he came in and made contact. Afterwards, there's a little bit of push from Letang. But he initiated the contact in there. So, by the rules of goalie interference, I still feel like it's goalie interference, and it seems like it changes day to day right now."
Hence, no apology.
"People can maybe question some of the challenges I've made. There's been some lower-percentage ones, but this one I thought was pretty clear.”
So did the one literally impacted.
"He touched already prior to the push," Silovs would say of Doan. "So I don't know what they're not seeing. I have no idea. Like, it always goes against us. Like, we challenge, we lose, we challenge for our goal-against, it doesn't matter. ... And they change the momentum of the game."
— Buffalo Hockey Moments (@SabresPlays) March 6, 2026
Blandina's the guy standing there watching Beck Malenstyn plow Parker Wotherspoon from behind, well after Malenstyn could get a clear view of both the 2 and the 8 on Wotherspoon's back. And Blandina's the guy who called that a minor.
Remember that whole thing about player safety?
Wotherspoon would finish the game, but not before skating to Blandina at the end of the second period to share a few words. And not before, once that intermission expired, Blandina skated to Wotherspoon near the Pittsburgh to share a few words of his own. I tried to find out afterward if maybe Blandina had admitted his error or even apologized -- that happens quite a bit in professional sports -- but was unsuccessful. And Wotherspoon himself was unavailable because he was receiving treatment.
• I've nothing to add. Should've just let Letang write this in the form of a single question:
Don't think Kris Letang liked the no-goaltending interference call. No lip reader need: pic.twitter.com/KcHhfhns8U
— Steel City Sports Report (@SteelCitySR) March 6, 2026
• Thanks for reading my hockey coverage. The NHL's season minus these two refs resumes this weekend. Flyers tomorrow, Bruins the next day.
THE ASYLUM
Grind: A brutal blunder by Geno, but bad officiating, too
Good Friday morning!
• Evgeni Malkin's major penalty for slashing, a reckless, ridiculous hack across the head/neck of the Sabres' Rasmus Dahlin that'll likely earn him an NHL suspension, was the correct call.
But the officiating, overall, both on the ice and in the Toronto replay room, was beyond brutal. Even within that same sequence.
And yeah, all of that can be true.
Listen, I’ve got no clue if this game could’ve been competitive if it'd been competently refereed, the Penguins' 5-1 loss to the Sabres on this Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena, but it sure would’ve been fun to find out. It was a matchup of two of the league's hottest teams, a rematch of a Pittsburgh victory in Buffalo a month ago that had left the losers vocally sore and ... well, it merited a hell of a lot better than it got from Furman South and Brandon Blandina, two Robert Morris University graduates who earned every boo, every derisive chant that rained down from the 17,572 on hand for nearly the entire evening.
Rather read about the game?
Well, these guys were the game.
Chances were traded, as were short-handed, full-flight goals by Ryan McLeod and Bryan Rust, in a fast-paced first period that promised more. At which point the Geno thing happened in the opening minute of the second:
I'll repeat, and emphatically: Geno blew it. Bad decision. Bad sportsmanship. Bad everything. He deserved the major, the ejection and, if it's a game or two, he'll have deserved the supplementary discipline sure to follow.
Now, having said that, and without interpreting any of what I'm about to point out as a defense of that specific act ... watch the run-up to what happened. Best view's in the first replay shown up there, the angle from below the goal line:
1. Dahlin whacks at Geno's glove in the high slot, causing Geno to shake his hand, one he'd continue shaking even upon heading down the tunnel after being tossed.
That's a slash. No call.
2. Dahlin follows Geno to the net and raises his shaft, with force, against the upper back.
That's a high stick. No call.
3. Dahlin now two-hands, with far greater force, Geno across the right side and into the net.
That's a cross-check. No call.
And through it all, watch South, the referee wearing No. 13, earning all over again his reputation for being just plain awful, watching all three of what I just listed without his right arm so much as flinching ... until Geno does his dumb thing.
That's utterly indefensible.
Rest assured, no one else will show the whole thing, only the slash and a sad-faced Dahlin:
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
You know, a point of pride for a good official is that their top priority is the safety of the athletes. South seemed set to watch damned near anything take place in that sequence, and that subsequently froze him up to the point where he could react only to a borderline crime.
That's trash. Sheer trash. No game should be reffed that way at any level of this great sport.
But wait ...
Oh, you betcha. Goaltender interference. Again.
If I'd landed here from Pluto earlier in the day, and someone had read out loud to me the NHL's actual rule -- in Swahili! -- I'd have been able to discern that Josh Doan, No. 91 for the Buffalo side, had a skate in the blue paint as his chest pretty much engulfed Arturs Silovs' mask before the rebound that pops out for what'd become the decisive goal.
And no, Kris Letang laying a single hand on Doan's upper back hardly causes him to crash like that, then strike the innocent flamingo-like pose. He's in there.
That's goaltender interference. No call.
And upon replay review, of course, no overturn. Meaning Dan Muse, who'd have to be either a rookie head coach in the NHL being initiated as if it's a half-century ago, or he'd be the hockey dope to end all hockey dopes to be 0-7 in challenging such calls this season.
He lost it on these guys ...
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
... and I don't blame him a bit. It's not like he's gaining street cred by staying stoic.
This is the one that really rattled the crowd, too. They've been watching this all winter and, even though it's hardly been limited to Pittsburgh, it can sure feel like it.
Especially to those impacted.
"Honestly, I can't even tell you what it is now," Ryan Shea would tell me when I asked him what goaltender interference is. "I saw one go against us in the Rangers game, and I saw another one later that night somewhere that was totally different. It looks like, for every other team, the guy barely gets grazed, and it's a no-goal. But I guess, for us, it's not working in our favor."
This one was more egregious than most, as Muse would acknowledge in explaining his stance in yet another futile challenge: “My view is, on goalie interference, because their player skated into the blue paint, made contact with our goalie, which affected the play, which is the rule ... he came in and made contact. Afterwards, there's a little bit of push from Letang. But he initiated the contact in there. So, by the rules of goalie interference, I still feel like it's goalie interference, and it seems like it changes day to day right now."
Hence, no apology.
"People can maybe question some of the challenges I've made. There's been some lower-percentage ones, but this one I thought was pretty clear.”
So did the one literally impacted.
"He touched already prior to the push," Silovs would say of Doan. "So I don't know what they're not seeing. I have no idea. Like, it always goes against us. Like, we challenge, we lose, we challenge for our goal-against, it doesn't matter. ... And they change the momentum of the game."
Sure do.
I've got one more, and I hate this one the most:
Blandina's the guy standing there watching Beck Malenstyn plow Parker Wotherspoon from behind, well after Malenstyn could get a clear view of both the 2 and the 8 on Wotherspoon's back. And Blandina's the guy who called that a minor.
Remember that whole thing about player safety?
Wotherspoon would finish the game, but not before skating to Blandina at the end of the second period to share a few words. And not before, once that intermission expired, Blandina skated to Wotherspoon near the Pittsburgh to share a few words of his own. I tried to find out afterward if maybe Blandina had admitted his error or even apologized -- that happens quite a bit in professional sports -- but was unsuccessful. And Wotherspoon himself was unavailable because he was receiving treatment.
• I've nothing to add. Should've just let Letang write this in the form of a single question:
• Thanks for reading my hockey coverage. The NHL's season minus these two refs resumes this weekend. Flyers tomorrow, Bruins the next day.
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