Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

NHL referees have some choice words for cirtical Ottawa Senators head coach Cory Clouston.

There was a time, back when the National Hockey League was more of a mom and pop shop, when Bryan Murray, Cory Clouston and their Ottawa Senators would have paid a heavy price for coming out and questioning the integrity of the NHL’s officials.

"Back in the old days when we didn’t have TV?" began veteran referee Paul Devorski, "We could show up in Winnipeg, and if I really wanted to shove it up yer hoop, I could. Nowadays, you can’t call a phantom hook or you’re on the carpet the next day with (NHL director of officiating) Terry Gregson. If it becomes habitual, now you’re not working playoffs."

So today, referees blow off the carping that came from Ottawa this week as more excuse-making by a GM, this time the Senators’ Murray. Clouston, his head coach, was cast in a rather embarrassing supporting role.

"It strikes me as something where (Murray) is not having as much success as he wants, so maybe it’s not his fault. Maybe it’s our fault," referee Mike Leggo said. "Take the blame off his players. Try and shift the focus, try and get the next break."

If you missed the story, Murray did some homework after his club lost 2-0 to Boston on Monday, a game in which they were not awarded a single power play. What he discovered was that more than 540 games had been played in the NHL to that point of the 2009-10 season, and only eight times had a club gone an entire game without receiving a powerplay.

Ottawa has been that team three of those eight times.

Murray got on the phone to Gregson, which is exactly what we would expect him to do.

"I asked the question: ‘How can we have this happen to us three times already and in another game we get one power play late in the game?’" Murray said. "I don’t want the story to be that I’m a complainer. That’s not the case."

First he tells the refs how to do their job. Now, he’s telling the guys who write the stories how to do theirs.

In the latest game in question, the score was 0-0 after 40 minutes. Boston scored twice in the third at Scotiabank Place, with no power plays awarded to either team in the third period.

The Senators could not find a way to win the third period. Instead of looking in the mirror, the GM and coach are playing that tired, old card of blaming the refs.

What’s next? That tough travel the Sens do? The condensed schedule because of the Olympics?

Have you heard any referees beak off about the four-year slide Murray’s Senators have been in? We didn’t think so.

"We’re a diverse group, with guys who have been around 20 years and guys working their first few games," Leggo said. "There’s no animosity towards any particular team. I think it is a ridiculous assertion that we have anything to do with it."

Murray, conscious of not coming across as a whiner, said this: "I’ve got four highlights of penalties, plus a too many men. I don’t even have to try to justify it. These are just factual things that should have been called."

"It’s a little disrespectful to our players," added head coach Cory Clouston. "They’re doing what they need to do to draw penalties. They come to the bench and they’re frustrated and they don’t know why that wasn’t a call."

Poor Senator players. And at Christmas, no less.

"I’ve got a lot of time for Bryan," Devorski said. "And Clouston? He’s fairly quiet when I’ve had him. I’ve had a few instances where we’ve spoken, I’ve explained why something was called, and he says, ‘Thanks very much.’ He’s pretty intense, but he’s not a screamer. Why would we go after him?"

Referees miss penalties — that is a fact. Just like players miss an open net once in a while. Just like coaches mess up a line change. Just like goalies let in a softie.

But another tenet of sport that is every bit as factual is this: when it comes to catching breaks, what goes around comes around. If you play honestly, work hard, and deserve some luck, you will get some eventually.

If you cheat, however, karma never sends the breaks your way.

By blaming the referees, Murray and Clouston are cheating. On a team that took far too long to look inward as their dressing room fell into disarray over the past few seasons, here is Murray once again shifting the onus off of his players and on to someone else.

Like any referee, and player, or any sports writer, this is one bad day that Murray would likely want to have back.