Lindy Ruff Tells Officials to 'Make the Call' After Frondell Flattens Power in OT

Lindy Ruff had three words for the officials, and he made sure they travelled. The Buffalo Sabres coach watched Chicago’s Anton Frondell back into Owen Power and knock him down 3:12 into overtime on Thursday, then watched Ryan Donato skate into the open ice and score the winner in a 3-2 Blackhawks win. “It’s a penalty in any league,” Ruff said afterwards. “Make the call.”

What happened on the overtime winner?

Frondell made the pass, then made the pick. Gino Hard reports the sequence came 3:12 into overtime at the United Center, with Power pursuing Donato in the defensive zone. Frondell moved the puck, then backed into Power and knocked the Buffalo defenceman to the ice. By the time Power was back on his skates, Donato had circled into the high slot and beaten Alex Lyon with a wrist shot. No whistle came, the goal stood, and the Sabres left Chicago with one point instead of two. Frank Nazar scored both of Chicago’s regulation goals, a backdoor play on the power play and a net-front tip, and the same Nazar had his own Department of Player Safety case a month ago, so the Blackhawks’ night was built on two players the officials had already judged once each.

What did Ruff actually say?

He said it plainly, twice, and then summed it up in three words. “It’s a penalty in any league. It’s a call you’ve got to get. It’s a call that has to be made,” Ruff said, NHL.com reports. “Guy turns and sticks his ass out and dumps our guy. Make the call.” Heavy notes the three-word demand is the line that travelled, and it is now the headline of Buffalo’s week. Ruff was less furious with his team than with the officials, Heavy reports, which is the tell: a coach who thinks his team lost the game blames the room, and a coach who thinks the officials took it blames the whistle.

Was it really a penalty?

That is the argument, and the accounts split on the label but not on the sequence. Yardbarker calls it an obvious, illegal pick, and Gino Hard describes Frondell backing into Power after moving the puck. A stationary screen is legal hockey; a player who turns and backs into a moving defender is not screening, he is interfering. The officials let it go in real time, and there is no review for a penalty that was never called, which is why Ruff’s complaint has nowhere to go except the postgame microphone. The no-penalty hit on Oliver Ekman-Larsson drew the same argument a month ago, a hit with no call and no hearing, and the league’s silence then is the precedent Ruff is now running into.

Why does this one sting more for Buffalo?

Because the Sabres did the hard part and lost the easy part. They entered Thursday off an 8-3 loss to Tampa Bay on Wednesday, NHL.com reports, and they played the defensive game they had promised: Chicago managed four rush scoring chances and three odd-man rushes, against ten and seven for Tampa Bay the night before. Power scored his 12th goal of the season and Tage Thompson his third in the first period, and Buffalo led 2-1 into the third. Then the Sabres managed five shots in the third period and none in overtime. The Canadiens had three goals disallowed in one game last month, and the pattern is the same: a team that plays well enough to win, then watches the officials decide the ending instead.

What did the Sabres do right before the no-call?

Quite a lot, which is why the ending landed so hard. Alex Lyon made his season debut after a preseason upper-body injury and an October setback, NHL.com reports, and his biggest save came with five seconds left in regulation, when he gloved Connor Bedard’s dangerous power-play wrister to force overtime. Lyon went 20-10-4 with a .907 save percentage last season, and his steadiness in net often seems to calm the rest of the team. Jack Quinn had two first-period assists and sits at 19 points, and he made a pair of defensive steals in overtime before the Donato winner. Ruff also balanced his defensive pairs, separating Power and Olen Zellweger, which helped dial back the all-out attacks seen on Wednesday. DeBrincat’s fight the same Thursday night was the other controversy of the evening, and the two of them together made Thursday the night the officials, not the players, wrote the headlines.

What happens next for Buffalo?

Dallas on Saturday, and a road trip that does not get easier. The Sabres play the Stars at 8 p.m. EST on Saturday, NHL.com reports, then Philadelphia, Washington, Florida and Tampa Bay to close the trip. Buffalo is 8-7-4, winless in its last three games at 0-2-1, and four points behind the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot. “Getting the point is okay,” Ruff said, “but we’ve got to start winning games.” The no-call will not be reviewed, and no fine for Ruff’s comments has been announced. The next judgment that matters is the one Buffalo renders on the ice in Dallas, where the Sabres have to prove the Chicago ending was a stolen point and not the start of a slide.