Vegas coach Peter DeBoer calls OT penalty 'soft'; accuses Avs of embellishing
With the Avs now leading their second round series against Vegas 2-0, Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer is not too happy with the call in overtime that led to the game winning goal by Mikko Rantanen. The call was two minutes for slashing on Reilly Smith.
"Just a soft call. But I can't even blame the refs. They're fighting through the embellishment of grabbing your face or falling down or dropping your stick every period. I can't even blame the ref. They fool them on it," said DeBoer.
Rantanen, who was on the receiving end of the call from Reilly, disagreed and said he did not try to drop his stick on purpose.
"It's just all over the league. That's the call. If you slash the other guys stick out of his hands, or break the stick, it's always a penalty,» reasoned Rantanen. «I'm a pretty strong guy. I can hang on to my stick, but that was a strong slash."
"I'm trying to get out to the point,» he said. «I don't think I would purposely drop my stick in the D-zone. Who does that?"
To be honest, while this is technically a slash, it's a bit of a weak call. Rantanen only had one hand on his stick when he loses it and it certainly wasn't a hard slash. You can view the penalty and the game winning goal in the video below.
![Feb 13, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; [Imagn Images direct customers only] Team USA forward Auston Matthews (34) looks on against Team Finland in the second period during a 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey game at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images](https://i.marqueur.com/habsetlnh/medium/531249.webp "Feb 13, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; [Imagn Images direct customers only] Team USA forward Auston Matthews (34) looks on against Team Finland in the second period during a 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey game at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images")
![Feb 13, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; [Imagn Images direct customers only] Team USA forward Auston Matthews (34) looks on against Team Finland in the first period during a 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey game at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images](https://i.marqueur.com/habsetlnh/medium/531292.webp "Feb 13, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; [Imagn Images direct customers only] Team USA forward Auston Matthews (34) looks on against Team Finland in the first period during a 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey game at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images")
