Joel Quenneville walks out of press conference, fuming from coach’s challenge (Video)
Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville abruptly ended his press conference Tuesday evening after the Blackhawks lost 2-0 to the San Jose Sharks.
The reason had to do with an overturned goal by the Blackhawks at 17:23 of the first period.
The Sharks challenged the score by Brandon Mashinter, saying Dennis Rasmussen interfered with netminder Martin Jones. It was deemed he did. Quenneville seemed so upset in his postgame news conference that he walked out after a few brief comments. The Sharks led 1-0 until the last two minutes when Joe Thornton scored an empty netter.
Above is the video of Quenneville, who seemed to be quite calm on the exterior after the first question before walking out.
“It’s gotten to a different level — I don’t know the rules anymore, or something’s changed,” Quenneville said. “I played a lot of hockey. I don’t know. I think everybody has an interpretation, what’s a good goal and what’s a bad goal. But I can’t believe it.”
The league saw it the play differently.
After reviewing all available replays and consulting with NHL Hockey Operations staff, the Referee determined that Chicago’s Dennis Rasmussen interfered with Jones before the puck crossed the goal line. According to Rule 78.7, “The standard for overturning the call in the event of a ‘GOAL’ call on the ice is that the Referee, after reviewing any and all available replays and consulting with the Toronto Video Room, determines that the goal should have been disallowed due to ‘Interference on the Goalkeeper,’ as described in Rules 69.1 and 69.3.”
The Chicago Sun-Times pointed out that this was the third Chicago goal that was overturned in less than a month. Here is Quenneville going ‘bananas’ after a goal was disallowed against the Arizona Coyotes last week.
CSN Chicago noted the last time Quenneville was this visibly upset by a referees call was in 2011 after Raffi Torres hit Marian Hossa, which led to a big suspension for Torres.
“The league wants to get more goals, but it seems like the rule is doing a good job of taking good goals away,” Hossa told reporters. “Last year, definitely, that would be a goal. No questions asked.”
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
