Adrian Dater
It was a bad call, plain and simple. The Avalanche got jobbed tonight on a phantom too-many-men call in overtime and lost the hockey game as a result, 5-4 to the Nashville Predators. This, on a night when top rookie defenseman Bo Byram left the team for “personal reasons.” Other than that, another swell night in Nashville for the Avs, who endured a Covid fiasco the last time they were here about a month ago.
When the referee’s hand went up in OT tonight, most everyone thought it would be a too-many-men call on the Predators, as some replays showed FIVE men on the ice at the end of a line change in the 3-on-3 OT. Instead, it was the Avalanche that drew the too-many-men call, even though replays CLEARLY showed Nathan MacKinnon was OFF the ice by the time Mikko Rantanen played a puck along the boards – and therefore, there were never “too many men” on the ice for the Avs there. Here, see for yourself:
Darcy Kuemper was never able to bail his team out tonight, and thus the Avs departed Bridgestone Arena losers in a game they just never were able to get control of at any point.
“I think this is the most frustrated our group has been all year, to be honest with you,” said Cale Makar afterward.
Makar tied the game 4-4 with about seven minutes left in the third, on another brilliant goal, but that’s when the Avs turned into a combination of the Keystone Cops, along with being victimized by a bad call.
Momentum stalled late in the game on the first too-many-men call, but the Avs were able to kill it off to get to OT. Then, with 2:28 left, the Avs were called for the infraction again.
“We’re frustrated,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I still haven’t seen the too-many-men, and I’ve already looked at the video.”
Bednar said he was never given an explanation on the call by any official.
Earlier in the day, the Avs announced that Byram had left the team for “personal reasons.” Bednar wouldn’t get into specifics as to why, when asked about it after the game.
“I don’t know how long he’s going to be out for,” Bednar said. “He didn’t play because of personal reasons. That’s basically all I know, so we’ll respect that.”
Messages to Byram’s agent, Kevin Epp, were not returned.
Byram has had an injury-plagued start to his young NHL career. He’s missed time with at least two concussions, and missed time recently because of a head injury the team said was not a concussion.
About the play of Kuemper, Bednar said: