Montreal Canadiens: Top 5 Missed Calls By Referees In Game 2

The Montreal Canadiens lost Game 1 of the Stanley Cup semifinals, and were in tough in a battle against the Vegas Golden Knights to tie up the series in Game 2.

Little did they know (or did they) that they would also have to battle the referees in Game 2 as well.

It really shouldn’t come as a surprise at this point that the officials, even at this point in the season, are terribly inconsistent.

The worst part of it is none of them have the guts to make the most obvious of calls against a team that is losing in the third period. We have seen this all season long, and though I do find it impossible to believe that NHL referees are biased or have favourite teams, I find it incredibly obvious that they can not do their job well.

Their ineptitude was on full display in Game 2. The Canadiens took an early lead when Joel Armia scored just over six minutes into the first period. Though not in any rulebook, this also fully guaranteed the Canadiens would take the first penalty of the game and they did just three minutes later.

When Tyler Toffoli extended the Habs lead to 2-0 before the first period ended, it all but ensured that the Canadiens would have to have a player nearly decapitated before they would get a power play.

There would be as many decapatations as power plays for the Canadiens in this game. Though, if a ref just applied the rule book as they are supposed to do, there would have been several power play opportunities for the Canadiens in Game 2.

Let’s take a quick look at the five greatest missed calls by NHL referees Francis Charron and Good Dwyer.

#5: Blatant slash on Cole Caufield

Cole Caufield was zipping around the offensive zone as he has become accustomed to doing these days. He was moving towards his own blue line and about to move the puck back to his teammates at the blue line. Just as he passed the puck, Caufield received a fairly heavy two handed slash on his wrist or hand, but it was not called.

Somehow, there doesn’t seem to be video evidence of this missed call on any replays, but there are for the top four missed calls from Game 2.

#4: Corey Perry gets speared in the…. pants.

Corey Perry has a long history in the NHL of getting under the opponent’s skin. He is a difficult player to play against, not just when he is putting up points, but he likes to push the envelope himself. He is often the player doing things that aren’t quite penalties, but referees don’t really enjoy seeing, like getting right in the face of the goaltender during play, or getting a little extra push or face wash on a player in a scrum.

This also leads to all kinds of times when Perry is on the receiving end of what should definitely be a penalty, but is just ignored. There were two such blatant examples in Game 2.

One was a battle along the boards where Perry was knocked to the ice by Ryan Reaves and landed on the puck. He probably could have worked a little harder to free the puck from under himself, but he was on for a long enough shift and wanted a whistle so he could change. It’s technically not illegal to stay on a puck you were knocked onto, but a player can get a delay of game for purposely falling on a puck.

Like I said, Perry wasn’t really doing anything wrong, but he was forcing the refs to blow the play down instead of just getting off the puck.

The real problem was when Vegas Golden Knights winger William Carrier was battling to free the puck. He tried two or three times to pull the puck loose but couldn’t. He then got frustrated and clearly speared Perry between the legs with significant force.

The referee, who was close enough to Carrier that he could have tapped him on the shoulder to inform him of his penalty, instead just blew the play down and called nothing. The motion of Carrier’s stick was enough for an easy minor penalty for slashing and should have been a double minor for spearing. By definition of the rule, you don’t even have to make contact with the opponent to get a double minor penalty for spearing, and should be assessed a major penalty if contact is made.

Or, if your team is losing in the playoffs it is not a penalty at all, I guess but I didn’t see that in the rulebook.

#2: Eric Staal taken out by Rowdy Roddy Pietrangelo

Early in the second period, with the Canadiens leading 2-0 (which means they aren’t allowed to get a power play, remember?) Alex Pietrangelo dumped the puck into the Habs zone. He was met by Eric Staal who delivered a light body check but slowed down the Golden Knights defender as he entered the zone.

The two remained tangled as they glided in from the blue line all the way into the corner. Then Pietrangelo, who must have been a big WWF fan growing up, did his best Rowdy Roddy Piper impression.

The Golden Knights defender grabbed Staal around the head, continued into the corner against the boards, used his other hand to also grab Staal by the face and then threw him to the ice. All of this happened dozens of feet away from the puck as it had long since gone around the back of the Canadiens net.

The referees must have not known whether to call it holding or interference or roughing and couldn’t come to a consensus. Does this two person jury need to be 100% in agreement to get a minor penalty conviction? I didn’t think so.

No word yet on whether Vince McMahon saw Pietrangelo’s moves, but it is clear that Charron and Dwyer were oblivious to it all.

#1: Edmundson run from behind into the boards

Joel Edmundson has logged a lot of minutes for the Canadiens in this playoff run. Like usual, he was out against the other team’s top centre late in Game 2, with the Habs clinging to a slim lead over the Golden Knights.

This, of course, also means that the Golden Knights are allowed to do whatever they want aside from shooting a puck over the glass. Anything else is fair game when you are down a goal in the third period of a playoff game.

Again, I haven’t seen “losing team can do whatever they want in the third period” actually written in the rule book, but it’s a big book and even NHL referees obviously don’t read all of it so I may have missed that page.

Anyway, it must be written in there somewhere that first line centres can run players from behind as long as they are down a goal in a playoff game. Because, that is exactly what Vegas centre William Karlsson did to Edmundson.

Karlsson followed Edmundson into the corner, staring directly at the Canadiens defenders numbers on the back of his jersey the whole time. When Edmundson moved the puck around the boards, Karlsson finished the play by cross checking Edmundson in the back when he was about a four away from the boards.

This is literally the definition of boarding as the contact was in a dangerous area, and Edmundson was thrown violently into the boards as a result of Karlsson’s actions. There was, of course, no call on the play.

I am certainly not saying referees are biased against the Montreal Canadiens, I just think they aren’t good enough at their job to do it properly. Also, I think they have archaic “game management” ideas that result in the winning team almost never getting power plays and it is ridiculous. These five calls being ignored in Game 2 are all the proof you need of that mentally among officials.