Kris Letang was not too happy with himself after Friday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Neither was Don Cherry.
“He’s gotta stop all this,” Cherry said during Saturday’s Coach’s Corner, referring to Letang’s hot-headed penalty midway through Game 4.
The Pittsburgh Penguins‘ top defenceman lost his composure and took two penalties at once during the second period when he was baited into a scuffle by Tampa’s Brian Boyle.
“Watch Boyle antagonize him,” Cherry said. “He did the same thing against [John] Tavares [in Round 2].”
The Lightning capitalized on the ensuing four-minute power play when Jonathan Drouin made it 3-0 just past the halfway point of the night.
“To me, Letang is very selfish doing that there,” said Cherry, who spoke of a similar case during his own coaching career.
“I had the same problem when I was in Boston,” he explained. “Brad Park was a superstar. He was unbelievable, 20 goals every year. But he used to lead the New York Rangers in fights. He comes to our club, the same thing. And I finally had to get him.”
As Cherry points out, Letang did still finish the game with a plus-one rating and logged over 30 minutes of ice time despite the penalties.
Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan also addressed the incident after the game.
“Yeah, we’d like him to handle that differently,” Sullivan told reporters. “He’s too important to our team, and that’s what I told him. And every team we play against goes after him, and so for the most part here this post-season, he’s had great composure and playing the game the right way.”
According to Cherry, the team’s fate could depend on that composure.
“Letang, he gets off his game like that,” said Cherry. “They’re not going to win unless he plays it smart. He played it stupid. Maybe next time he’ll play it smart.”
