Mike Richards thinks the Sabres got away with murder. Lindy Ruff isn't going to let the Philly captain get away with that.
Richards complained about the officiating following the Sabres' 1-0 victory Wednesday night, a win that tied the series at 2-2. Ruff responded today before flying to Philadelphia for Game Five on Friday night.
"I just feel that there’s a lot of whining," the Sabres' coach said in HSBC Arena. "They’re really doing a lot of whining. I didn’t hear any whining when they had 10 power plays in Philly, and I didn’t hear them whining when the power plays in the first game were lopsided. But all of sudden there’s all this whining about we’re getting away with murder. That’s a bunch of crap. That’s for the media. That’s for the officials to read. That’s for, 'Here, let’s get the next call.' It’s a bunch of crap. Let’s just play.
"We’re just playing. There hasn’t been one word about officiating out of us, but if they want to cry about the officiating or whine about different calls, go ahead.
"It’s going to be decided by the emotion on the ice, how hard you want to play and how hard you want to compete and how dirty you want to get. I accept the fact the emotions are going to be ramped up real high in that game. I want to see what players come to the top of that."
The complete audio of Ruff's news conference is below, as is Ryan Miller's chat. The goaltender chuckled at Richards' statement and said the captain is just trying to deflect attention from the fact he took a five-minute major for elbowing.
---John Vogl
Lindy Ruff
Ryan Miller
