Montreal Canadiens: Why Do NHL Refs Hate Michael Pezzetta?

Montreal Canadiens prospect Michael Pezzetta wasn’t the longest shot to make the Habs roster this season, but of the 70 players attending training camp, most fans would have given about 50 players a better chance of playing with the Canadiens this season than the unknown Pezzetta.

Pezzetta quickly proved us fans wrong when he had a terrific training camp. He still didn’t crack the opening night lineup, but he put himself on a short list of upcoming recalls from the Laval Rocket.

Sure enough, Pezzetta was called up  by the Canadiens on November 1st and made his NHL debut against the Detroit Red Wings the next night.

Pezzetta earned this call up not just with a strong training camp and couple of exhibition games, but a great start to the season with the AHL’s Laval Rocket as well. He scored three goals and three assists in eight AHL games this season and was a major pain in the side for his opponents on a nightly basis.

He brings that same buzz and energy to the Canadiens lineup now, and it appears he has ticked off more than just his opponents. The NHL referees don’t seem to appreciate Pezzetta’s rough style and post-whistle antics as much as Habs fans.

This first became apparent when the Habs played the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night. Twice, within just a couple of minutes Pezzetta was penalized when Kings winger Brendan Lemieux took obvious dives on light pushes. The first time, Lemieux also went off for unsportsmanlike conduct. If the refs are calling a dive, why does Pezzetta also get a cross checking penalty? Shouldn’t it be one or the other? He fell because he dove not because he was hammered with a cross check.

The second interaction between the players saw Pezzetta try and entice Lemieux to fight him shortly after they both exited the box. Lemieux wasn’t interested and then took quite a tumble when Pezzetta gave him a little push.

Last night, Pezzetta was the victim of just an atrocious call by the referees. Just two minutes before making up a complete phantom call against Pezzetta, the referees watched an eight person melee without really calling anything.

Brendan Gallagher scored a power play goal and was then cross checked hard by Erik Gudbrandson. Tyler Toffoli retaliated with a solid enough cross check of his own. Both players were given roughing penalties. No other penalties were called on the play as Chris Tanev and Chris Wideman punched each other in the head with no gloves on. Nick Suzuki and Michael Backlund wrestled each other to the ice. Gudbrandson headlocked and gave Gallagher a couple of short jabs to the face. Gallagher might have even kicked Gudbrandson just after the initial cross check.

None of that was deemed worthy of a penalty, but just two minutes later, Pezzetta gets called for roughing on this play:

Maybe it’s the long hair. Perhaps it is just the face that Pezzetta is a rookie. It is possible that NHL referees just make head scratching calls on a nightly basis.

Whatever it is, Pezzetta has certainly come out on the short end the past two games. Hopefully he can start to get the benefit of the doubt from refs soon.