The Montreal Canadiens played an amazing Game 4 last night against the Vegas Golden Knights, but didn’t get rewarded by the numbers, and lost the game 2-1 in overtime.
However, what had Twitter and the entire hockey world buzzing during the game, after, and even now, was the absolutely terrible officiating in that game.
And I am talking about both teams here. This is not a “the Canadiens lost because of the referees” piece, but just a piece about how the referees did an awful job, missing many calls that should’ve been called and calling a soft hooking penalty against Nick Suzuki – that shouldn’t have been a penalty, in my opinion.
However, what should’ve been a penalty was at least one holding against Corey Perry, as he was going towards the net to shoot the puck, or a boarding call against William Carrier, or roughing against Suzuki – yes, I’m talking about that punch by Brayden McNabb right in front of referee Chris Lee.
The list goes on and on, the referees decided to ignore penalties for most of the game, and considering how bad they were, I still can’t believe these are NHL referees officiating in the Stanley Cup Semifinals.
I’m 100% sure that other referees would’ve called at least some of the right penalties, so why were Lee and Dan O’Rourke officiating this game?
This only makes all Canadiens fans, hockey fans, analysts, reporters – or just anyone who watches hockey really – question the NHL’s credibility.
There have been many incidents of bad decisions by the Department of Player Safety (DoPS) this season and postseason, and now all the talk is about the officiating.
There are issues about the NHL that everyone is seeing, yet, not the league itself. Or are they seeing it all but just ignoring it? And which one is worse?
I think the answer is that I’m even questioning it. That’s just how bad it has gotten.
How long can the NHL continue to not address any of these issues, the consistency, the joke that it has all become?
Unfortunately, no one knows.
However, fixing bad officiating is a lot easier than fixing the DoPS’s inconsistency when addressing supplementary discipline.
I just want them to stop managing the game.
— Brian Wilde (@BWildeMTL) June 21, 2021
Be a robot.
Forget the score. Forget who got the last penalty. Forget you want league parity. Forget who you don’t like because they’re mouthy. Forget what time it is in the game.
Forget all of it.
Just call the damn rule book.
If the referees and the league could just agree to follow their own rulebook, things would be a lot simpler. Just call whatever needs to be called, I wouldn’t think it’s too much to ask.
Of course, no matter what referees do, some people will always complain about it, but if they’re doing their jobs right and calling penalties, that’s all that should matter.
Referees are human and they might miss a call here and there, but it’s a totally different story when you have the entire hockey world saying that the officiating was a joke in a full game.