Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins have their backs against the wall in the 2025-26 NHL season. Down 3-0 in the first round series against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Pens have no margin for error. The Game 3 loss at Xfinity Mobile Arena could prove decisive, and the Penguins’ captain believes the referees played a role in the final score.
Although Crosby finally registered his first point of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs—snapping his two-game drought—it wasn’t a good night for him or the Penguins. It felt like they weren’t on the referees’ good side all game long. Though Crosby had seen the glass half full despite the Pens’ terrible start to the series, that’s all changed. Desperation might be the one speaking now.
Crosby was assessed an embellishment penalty—the first of his career—on what would’ve been a critical man-advantage situation for the Pens. Still, Crosby was even more fired up about the second-period incidents that led to a game-changing power play for the Flyers.
“It kind of turned into a bit of a circus there,” Crosby said about the chaotic turn of events in the second period, via Pens Inside Scoop. “I’m not sure why [the refs] decided to put five guys in the box on each side. I felt like that kind of changed a lot of the momentum. Felt like [the Flyers] fed off that.”
Sidney Crosby during the 2024 NHL All-Star Skills Competition
What happened in second period?
Pittsburgh led 1-0 in the second period when all havoc broke loose on the ice. As players got involved in fisticuffs, the zebras handed out penalties like they were candy. A total of 11 penalties were assessed to 10 different players. The key difference was that Bryan Rust ended up with an extra penalty, handing Philly a power-play opportunity.
With five players on each team’s penalty box, Trevor Zegras cashed in with a thunderous one-timer in the man-advantage, and the game flipped entirely. It was all Flyers from there on out, and the Penguins could never recover.
“I don’t know how Rusty ends up with the extra [penalty] out of all of that, I don’t know how I end up with the embellishment,” Crosby said, expressing his confusion at the referees’ decisions in Game 3. “It’s hard to understand, but you gotta play through that.”
Officiating crew during Game 3
According to Scouting The Refs, Jake Brenk and Francois St. Laurent were the referees at Xfinity Mobile Arena during Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs matchup between the Flyers and Penguins. The linesmen were C. J. Murray and Jonny Murray.
Though namesakes, the two linespersons are not related. Moreover, C.J. Murray was born in Pittsburgh, but he still found himself in Crosby’s crosshairs, as the Penguins believe they got the short end of the stick.
Penguins face elimination
The Penguins are hanging on to their last life in the 2025–26 NHL season. Virtually nobody expected them to be in the postseason coming into the year, but after finishing second in the Metro, they hope to make the most of what might be the last rodeo for Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang. Fight to live another day—that’s the name of the game for Pittsburgh.
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Will Pittsburgh win one game and avoid the sweep?
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