The Boston Bruins did not lose Sunday’s 2026 Stadium Series showdown at Raymond James Stadium because of officiating.
It’s simply impossible to blame officiating when you blow a four-goal lead. The Bruins had plenty of chances to stop the bleeding or extend their lead before the Bolts erased it on the way to a 6-5 shootout win, and they simply didn’t. But the Bruins certainly had an understandable gripe with how things transpired in the opening minutes of overtime.
After the Lightning were unable to capitalize on a two-on-one of their own, Marat Khusnutdinov led the Bruins the other way and fed David Pastrnak for a snipe through Andrei Vasilevskiy just 22 seconds into overtime sealed the deal on an electric win.
A goal… until it wasn’t.
While the Bruins were going up ice, referee Jon McIsaac had his arm raised. A penalty on Boston. But a whistle was not heard. Not by anybody on the Bruins, anyway. This was especially true for Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman, who had made his way halfway up the first, either to get to the bench for an extra attacker or to celebrate the would-have-been game-winning tuck by Pastrnak.
It wasn’t so much the call itself that bothered the Bruins, but the lack of a decision until the Bruins had thought they won the contest.
“I have no clue what happened, honestly,” a frustrated Pastrnak said postgame. “It’s a freaking turnover, and we have a two-on-one. Referee has arm up, he’s letting it go, Sway’s going to the bench, we finished the play, score a goal, and all of a sudden I’m in the penalty box.”
“We didn’t get anything,” Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy said when asked if he got an explanation from the official during the chaotic sequence. “He came over and said sorry. You’ll have to ask him. I don’t know what he was thinking or seeing there. There wasn’t a whistle. He skated, we skated all the way down to the other end and he blew it dead when the puck was already in the net. So, I’m just really confused.”
“It was a joke,” Pastrnak said. “I don’t care if that’s a bad answer. But that’s how I feel. It’s weird, I score and I end up in the penalty box.”
After the defeat, Bruins head coach Marco Sturm tried to be more diplomatic given the context of how the Bruins got there.
“We all have good days [and] we all have bad days,” Sturm said following the defeat. “I know some of them were not in our favor. We have to do a better job, and [the officials] probably have to do a better job, too.”
Up 5-1 after Morgan Geekie’s second goal of the evening, scored at the 8:18 mark of the second period, the Bruins straight-up crumbled with what was an almost unheard of parade to the box. In a span of 6:38, the Bruins were whistled for five, non-matching minor penalties.
That gave the Bolts the chance to get back into this game with three power-play goals, including a pair of five-on-three opportunities that they cashed in on with two goals in 23 seconds.
And in the third, it was Nikita Kucherov who knotted things up with a one-time blast through Jeremy Swayman with 8:10 left in regulation.
Overall, the Bruins mustered just five shots in the third period and none in overtime, while the Bolts landed 15 pucks on Swayman over the final 25 minutes of play, including nine in the overtime session.
In the shootout, the Bolts’ Jake Guentzel scored the only goal of the three-round affair, with Pastrnak denied by the post on his chance in the bottom of the third round.
The Bruins will get back to work Wednesday night they visit the Panthers down in Sunrise. It will be the Black and Gold’s final game before the club goes on the Olympic break.
