KHL coach calls out Brendan Leipsic for 'Canadian acting skills' (video)

A KHL coach has publicly called out Brendan Leipsic, and in doing so, seemed to take a not-so-subtle shot at the Canadian hockey community. Roman Rotenberg, coach of SKA St. Petersburg, was involved in a heated game against Metallurg Magnitogorsk Saturday. Magnitogorsk happens to be the home team of Canadian Brendan Leipsic, who is on his third season in the KHL.

Rotenburg's SKA won the game 4-3, but the coach felt the need to take a dig Leipsic for what he felt was an attempt to get the referee's attention on a play. Leipsic was hit hard into the boards, and there's no doubt it wasn't by his own choice. Rotenberg's beef appears to be with Leipsic laying on the ice and then looking up for a short moment to ensure at least one of the officials had an arm up and that his fall had been noticed. Zakhar Bardakov, the penlaized player, ended up with five minutes, a game misconduct, and another minor penalty to boot, which really seemed to get under Rotenberg's skin.

"An interesting game, everyone's eyes lit up with fire," said Rotenberg. "Strong opponent, showed Canadian acting skills in some moments. We had to overcome that, too. We responded to provocations with goals. "

Rotenberg then went on to note the seven minute penalty to his player, hinting at how unfair he thought it was.

"The acting skills of the Canadian team worked," he said.

Here's video of the incident. The apparent look for the ref comes pretty early on.

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