Mike Ribeiro directs diatribe toward referees after Capitals loss

Washington Capitals forward Mike Ribeiro wasn’t happy with the officiating during Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, as evidenced by a lengthy diatribe in a Washington Times blog post following the game.

Ribeiro, who the Capitals acquired at the 2012 NHL Entry Draft in exchange for Cody Eakin and a second-round pick, was reportedly high-sticked twice during Tuesday’s game.

According to Stephen Whyno of the Washington Times, Ribeiro twice confronted the officials as to why there was no call on either infraction. Ribeiro was handed a 10-minute misconduct and and an unsportsmanlike minor with 1:16 remaining in the third period after his second discussion with the refs.

His final meeting with officials actually took place after he set up Troy Brouwer for a power-play goal that cut the Jets lead to two goals.

Those comments put the cap on a frustrating night for the Capitals, who lost their second straight game to start the 2013 season, and second straight under the guidance of new head coach and Hockey Hall of Famer Adam Oates.

The Capitals, 6-3 losers to the Tampa Bay Lightning in their season opener Saturday, are supposedly having trouble adjusting to the new offensive style of play Oates wants to implement. Of course, the Capitals, led by their star Alex Ovechkin, have tried trending towards a more defensive style over the past few years, but also struggled with that aspect.

“It is a good system,” Oates was quoted as saying on NHL.com. “It’s going to be hard and we have to fight through that. I thought we could have had better execution. We didn’t give ourselves the opportunity to play the team game.”