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PITTSBURGH — The controversy over whether Sidney Crosby likes to dive heated up several degrees on Saturday when Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Michel Therrien levelled his guns at Tom Renney, his New York Rangers counterpart.
"Enough is enough," Therrien declared of Renney's perceived complaints about Crosby. "That's enough."
Before the NHL playoff series between the teams started, Renney responded to a question about Crosby's alleged diving by saying he would make diving a topic with the NHL series supervisor. It became a regular staple in the New York media, just as the Penguins' concerns about Rangers pest Sean Avery became fodder for the media in Pittsburgh and elsewhere.
Things got worse when Game One of the Eastern Conference semi-final hinged on an interference call on Rangers centre Martin Straka late in the game. Crosby just happened to be the player Straka pulled down and on the ensuing power play he combined with teammate Evgeni Malkin for the winning goal as the Penguins took the first game of the series, 5-4.
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Straka didn't say anything after the game but he did draw a game-misconduct penalty at the end of the game for what he said to the referees about the call. Rangers forward Brendan Shanahan accused Crosby of embellishing his fall and said "it was a weak call at that time of the game."
Renney made his unhappiness known without directly accusing the referees of making a mistake. "Did you see the call?" he asked at his post-game scrum. "Draw your own conclusions."
On Saturday, Therrien was doing just that. Not only about the call but about Renney's obvious gamesmanship in trying to persuade the league to crack down on Crosby. Therrien, of course, was trying his own gamesmanship since he launched into a soliloquy about the matter at the end of his news conference when no one asked him directly about it.
"I'm disappointed," Therrien said. "This is a star player [who] plays in traffic, a powerful skater, When a star player like this goes to traffic and plays in traffic, well he's going to draw a penalty.
"We all know what Tom Renney was trying to do before the series and I see his comment [on Saturday]. He tries to [bring] attention to the referees and complains about the penalty at the end of the game."
As far as Therrien and his coaching staff were concerned, the call on Straka was legitimate. And others who watched the replay agreed it was a call typical of the post-lockout NHL, which emphasized speed and skill by introducing no tolerance for obstruction infractions.
"As far as I'm concerned and we're all concerned, [Straka's penalty] was not even close," Therrien said. "In the 1990s, I could understand, they let those things go. With the new game, it's about speed, it's about making sure the good players, when they get the chance to make plays, they get to make plays.
"I'm kind of disappointed [Renney] complained about it."
Therrien said he is not concerned that Renney's complaints will change the way the referees call those plays.
"We know what he is trying to do but I'm convinced the referee doesn't buy into those things, the league doesn't buy into those things," Therrien said.
When the Rangers were informed of Therrien's comments they played ignorant. Renney said he never directly accused Crosby of diving and Shanahan said any unhappiness expressed over the call after the game was simply protecting Straka.
In fact, Shanahan said with a straight face, Crosby's all-out style of play can sometimes "confuse" the referees into calling penalties.
"He's around the puck a lot, and he makes second and third efforts that are going to sometimes drop him down to his knees, and that's just the way he plays," Shanahan said. "I don't think he's necessarily diving, but he's the kind of player that will dive for loose pucks, and I think he plays an all-out, all-effort style that sometimes referees can confuse with someone fouling him."
Shanahan did agree with Therrien that it was not a call that would have been made in the bad old obstruction days. Of course, Shanahan had a lot to do with that, since he organized the famous hockey summit during rhe lockout that helped convince the NHL to change its ways.
"I think when you watch old tapes [before the lockout], you would certainly say this is the better way to go," Shanahan said. "And I think that obstructing players away from the puck is something players could never go back to.
"But again, I think the only thing our team did [Friday] night was defend Martin Straka. We certainly didn't come into the room after the game and throw down our equipment and say we got hosed by the refs. So I'm kind of surprised that Therrien is making it a big issue today because we aren't. If he wants to bring the referees' attention to it, fine."
Renney gave the matter his best "Who, me?" treatment.
"I don't recall suggesting Sidney himself was an issue," he said. "What I do recall suggesting is that before every series you meet the supervisor of officiating and you talk about the rules in general.
"And certainly by my answers [after the game] I didn't suggest anybody was outside the rules of the game. I left that for others to conclude."
In any event, the Rangers said, they have all moved on.
"It's gone; we can't do anything about that," Renney said. "Our team completely passed over that before we left the dressing room [Friday] night."
