Montreal Canadiens coach Claude Julien was fined $10,000 Monday for his comments about the officiating in Saturday night’s overtime loss to the Dallas Stars.
The Canadiens squandered a 3-0 lead in the game, and afterward, Julien said the officials had missed several calls.
“Some people need to be held accountable after this game,” Julien said. “We had to beat two teams tonight.”
It was a rare outburst for Julien, who is not known to be outspoken about officiating.
“We’re up 3-0, we’re playing well,” Julien said. “We make a bad mistake on giving them the puck on that first goal. But given those situations after that, we could have had power plays. It was such a poorly managed game [by the referees]. … Let’s put it that way.”
Julien had a long list of grievances. He said Ilya Kovalchuk‘s stick was broken by a slash when he had the puck and there was no call. He said a trip on Ben Chiarot was not called, and then Chiarot was penalized when he retaliated with a one-handed slash. There was no call when Max Domi had his lip split open, or when Joel Armia was hooked to the ice during overtime, Julien said.
“We couldn’t talk to the official. He was screaming at our players,” Julien said. “I told him, when he was close to the bench, that I hoped he watched his games back. He told me to take a hike.”
The money from the fine goes to the NHL Foundation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.