Four members of the Phoenix Coyotes who showed their displeasure with the officiating after their Game 5 loss to the Los Angeles Kings will not be disciplined.
NHL vice president Colin Campbell told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com that while the league was not pleased with the actions of forward Martin Hanzal and goaltender Mike Smith, as well as the comments of defenceman Keith Yandle and forward Shane Doan, he spoke to all four players and chose not to pursue the issue further.
The Coyotes were incensed that Kings captain Dustin Brown was not penalized for a questionable hit on Coyotes defenceman Michal Rozsival in overtime just prior to the series-winning goal.
Hanzal skated aggressively toward one of the officials and made a threatening gesture while Smith threw his stick in the direction of the officials.
"I told Hanzal, 'The way you went at the official after the game physically, you didn't make contact, but that was disrespectful. You're lucky you weren't suspended by the official for doing something like that. Even though you didn't make contact I thought it was (of) a threatening nature,'" Campbell said to LeBrun.
Yandle questioned the integrity of the officials, implying there was no coincidence the referees were wearing the same colours as the Kings while Doan expressed his thoughts to Brown during the post-game handshake.
"I said to Yandle, 'I thought your comment about who was wearing what colour was wrong. That's the integrity of the game and you're suggesting that because you didn't have an owner that you have no support?' I said, 'Not a chance,'" Campbell added.
"I said to Doan, 'Your comments after the game were not totally correct about the officiating and what you thought. I didn't hear anything after the Chicago series after (Marian) Hossa got hurt and a major wasn't applied. I didn't hear anything from the Chicago Blackhawks,'" said Campbell, who added that Doan was most apologetic during their meeting.
