Lightning coach feels a fake dive led to his team's tie with Toronto and says something should be done about such things.
By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published February 12, 2004
TAMPA - Lightning coach John Tortorella said the blown icing call by linesman Jonny Murray during Tuesday's game with the Maple Leafs was a mistake. A bad one, a costly one, but just a mistake.
When Toronto's Gary Roberts drew an interference penalty on defenseman Jassen Cullimore with what appeared to be an obvious dive, well, that, Tortorella said, was a disgrace.
Both plays led to Maple Leafs goals.
The icing call gave Toronto a faceoff in the Tampa Bay zone and led to Roberts' goal that tied it at 4 with 44.4 seconds left in the third period.
But it was Owen Nolan's power-play goal 5:09 into the period, with Cullimore in the penalty box, that made the score 4-3 and, as Tortorella said, "gets the ball rolling."
It prompted Tortorella on Wednesday to call for stiffer penalties for diving and clearer parameters on calling obstruction.
"I think there has to be legislation in this league to make the dive a major penalty, and sometimes even discretion to kick the guy out," Tortorella said. "It's disgraceful for the game and puts the referees in an embarrassing position.
"Gary Roberts is an absolute warrior. ... I probably have more respect for him than a lot of players in this league because of the way he's played for so long. But to me, that play, it was like he was shot from the XO Club; loses his stick, he almost got hurt by the way he dove. For that to be in the game is wrong. And that's what really eats at me right now. And then they score on the power play."
Tortorella took his team to task for blowing three leads and a two-goal edge in the third. He also was adamant he was not beefing with the referees "because they have a tough, tough job and I don't think we define it well enough for them."
He just cannot abide when the outcome of a game is taken out of the players' hands. Contributing to that, he said, is the amount of obstruction and the discretion built into the system of calling penalties.
"Right now we're not sure when we're going to get it, whose going to call it, this way for this period and that for that period and the third," Tortorella said. "Either have zero tolerance with obstruction or let the boys go at it. Let 'em hack, whack, hook, grab, anything, so you have the men deciding the game, not the coaches, not the referees, not the linesmen."
Tortorella said Toronto defenseman Ken Klee obstructed Lightning All-Star Martin St. Louis six times and got one interference penalty. The coach called that "the old Philadelphia Flyers mentality.
"I'm going to do it 100 times in this game because they're only going to call it a couple of times,' and that's what's wrong. And I don't blame the referees because there is so much discretion involved, and I still don't think there is enough definement on what we're doing there."
Andy VanHellemond, the league's supervisor of officials, was flying to his Toronto office after the general managers meetings in Las Vegas and could not be reached for comment. But league spokesman Gary Meagher said diving "has been a point of emphasis the last couple of years."
Last season the league imposed $1,000 fines for what Meagher called "egregious" dives. He said diving has lessened this season. Though "it is still a point of emphasis ... it hasn't been something that on a day-to-day basis is on the front burner."
As for the icing call, Meagher said it was "tough to tell" if the puck crossed the goal line before Toronto's Bryan McCabe touched it.
"The game was over if that's not icing," Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk said. "I think (Murray) put himself in a bad spot by the positioning he was in, and he probably couldn't see the play well."
Tortorella has seen enough.
"To bring that diving in and to have it cost certain situations to certain teams, and we're not the only team, it's wrong," he said. "It's embarrassing in a man's game."
