Olli Maatta and Drake Caggiula were in the midst of an exuberant celebration next to the Blackhawks’ bench Wednesday when they first realized something might be off.
“All of a sudden, guys were saying, ‘Hold on a sec,’” Caggiula said Friday. “Whistles started blowing a couple more times. Then we turn around and they’re waving it off.”
“From that moment on, it was just a guessing game. Did they blow it down because they thought [the Bruins] took possession from the [delayed] penalty? Did they blow it down because of a hand pass? We had no idea.”
Hawks fans are well aware of the sequence of events that transpired after that: the goal didn’t count, the Hawks didn’t convert on the ensuing power play, the Bruins won the game in overtime and Jonathan Toews said afterward that the referee admitted it was “his mistake.”
It’s a moment that could live in infamy — if it ends up affecting the Hawks’ tight playoff chase — or, if not, will at least be remembered one of the bigger regular-season controversies the United Center has seen in recent years.
But for Caggiula, the goal-scorer, and Maatta, the supposed hand-passer, it’s been a difficult 48 hours of clearing the alternate scenarios out of their mind.
“‘Maatts’ played it with his hand then poked it with his stick, and I came in and took it and probably scored one of my best goals that will never count,” he said. “It is what it is. It’s over now. We just have to move on. It would have been a big point for us, but a little bit of adversity doesn’t hurt anybody. You’ve just got to see how strong you come back from it.”
Both said they did not hear a whistle during the sequence, but it was an unfortunate sound overload, as the fans — frustrated at the officials all night — were simultaneously roaring in appreciation of the tripping call. Hearing anything else would’ve been difficult, and Maatta admitted Friday that from “what I’ve seen, he definitely blew [the whistle].”
The NHL’s officiating department released a statement to NBC Sports Chicago on Thursday backing the initial hand-pass call, stating that the fact the puck hit Maatta’s stick after being pushed by his glove is “not relevant” because it does not equate to “possession and control.”
For Maatta, that statement seemed to somewhat ease the anxiety.
“I touched it, but I think the league came out today with the [statement],” Maatta said. “They made it clear. Can’t do anything about it right now. We have a big game on Sunday [in Winnipeg], so we’ve just got to focus on that.”
Coach Jeremy Colliton echoed Maatta that the team is being motivated more now by the upcoming five-game Canadian road trip — all against fellow Western Conference bubble teams — than by residual anger leftover from Wednesday.
Colliton had said Wednesday that “these things have a way of evening out,” and it is true that the Hawks found themselves on the other end of a similar controversy Dec. 29 in Columbus — a shootout win that should’ve been an overtime loss, if not for an officiating clock management error.
Yet that’s still little solace for Caggiula.
“Obviously there was frustration, a couple swear words thrown out there,” he said. “It’s one of those things where you’ve just got to try to keep your composure. That’s something that we can’t control; we just got to be able to control ourselves. We have to be a little bit better at keeping our highs and lows.”
