In the wake of their 4-3 overtime loss at the hands of the Florida Panthers, several Colorado Avalanche players - and head coach Patrick Roy - did their best not to voice negative opinions of the referees and, specifically, their decision to call a penalty on Colorado defenseman Brad Stuart early in overtime - after swallowing their whistles on a similar penalty against Florida only minutes before, according to the Denver Post.
"I'm not going to say much about it (because) I'll get myself in trouble," Stuart told the Post's Mike Chambers. "But I don't agree with it, I'll say that much - especially after I got hauled down in the third, right in front of him and he doesn't call it."
Stuart was penalized for tripping Panthers' forward Aleksander Barkov in the left corner of the defensive zone early in overtime - it appeared, by Chambers' account, to be embellishment on Barkov's part. The penalty came on the heels of Florida's Tomas Fleischmann who tripped Stuart behind the Av's net late in the third period - an infraction that was not called.
"I'm not going to make any comment on that," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said of Stuart's penalty, according to Nick Groke of the Post. "You guys saw it."
Colorado center Matt Duchene also seemed displeased, but did his best not to say anything inflammatory.
"I'd like to say stuff but I'm not going to," he said. "It's frustrating."
Florida's Brad Boyes, who scored the game-winner, offered that the refs may have pocketed their whistles against the Panthers because of calls they "owed" Florida, according to Chambers.
"There were two calls that we didn't think were the right calls, but at the same time they let a couple of ours go late in the game that they owed us, so I don't know if that evened out," Boyes said.
Duchene still wouldn't blame the refs, but pointed to the penalty as a key reason for the loss.
"I really think that, had we not gotten that penalty, I think we would probably win the game."
The Avalanche, now 1-4-2 and in last place in the Central Division, will need to regroup quickly after this tough, and questionable, loss.
