New York Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault likely doused the flames a bit by claiming his team’s responsibility for Game 4’s eight penalties, but that didn’t stop people from accusing the Montreal Canadiens of embellishing/diving/other mean terms for gaining power plays.
Apparently the Game 5 officials are well-aware of that talk.
In a moment that doesn’t come along very often, Canadiens forward Tomas Plekanec received a two-minute embellishment penalty that didn’t come with a corresponding minor for the Rangers. (Typically, an embellishment penalty leads to a 4-on-4 situation rather than a power play.)
The plot thickened when Chris Kreider scored a 4-4 goal on the resulting power play, although some of the controversy may have subsided considering that Rene Bourque gave Montreal a 5-4 lead shortly thereafter.
Regardless, it was quite the spectacle. Check out a montage of how we got to this point:
Here’s the goal that happened on the ensuing power play: