Ryan Miller admits he ‘got the benefit’ on Boston’s goalie interference call
Boston Bruins announcer Andy Brickley called it "the worst call of the year."
Before you label that partisan griping, take a look at the goalie interference call on Rich Peverley that negated a game-tying goal in the first period against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night. (Bonus: The following clip features an awkward Mike Milbury joke about Pat Kaleta making him want to use the bathroom.)
From New England Hockey Journal's game blog:
Boston thought they'd notched the tying tally a few minutes later as a shot from the point eluded Ryan Miller. In arguably the worst call of the entire NHL season, Rich Peverley was deemed guilty of interfering with Miller. In reality, a nudge from a Sabres d-man led to Peverley ever-so-slightly grazing Miller's arm. The netminder never even complained about being interfered with.
Instead of 1-1, it was 2-0 Buffalo after the first en route to a 6-0 domination of the Bruins; arguably Buffalo's best win and Boston's worst defeat of the season.
After the game, Miller was asked about the call, and admitted recent history played a hand in it.
Without spelling it out, he indicated that the refs may have been sensitive to goalie interference thanks to Milan Lucic's steamrolling of Miller earlier this season.
Via WGR 550 in Buffalo, Miller said:
"I think it might have been that Boston couldn't touch me tonight.
"Just the way things have played out in the last few months, I think I definitely got the benefit there. I'm not gonna complain. I've [haven't had] a lot of bounces that way, and they've had their number of bounces in the last year. (Laughs) They've had a lot go right for them, so we'll take that one."
Miller, by the way, is on fire: 4-0-1 with 0.95 GAA and .969 save percentage in his last five games according to the Buffalo News. The Sabres are nine points out of the eight seed with three games in-hand. Just sayin'.
