There are hardly any sports where the match officials don’t draw the players’ or the fans’ ire from time to time. From Daniil Medvedev slamming the match umpire over a questionable call to the Pierluigi Collina debating players on the soccer pitch, referees aren’t always the most favorite figures within their respective communities. For the NHL, it is no different, and today’s game between the Canadiens and the Oilers proved it once again.
On Thursday, Edmonton picked up a marginal 6-5 victory over Montreal at Rogers Place. And yet, even head coach Kris Knoblauch had to admit that the Oilers barely looked like the back-to-back Stanley Cup finalists they are. “Maybe the last 10 minutes of the game, it looked like we were a team. But the first 50, it was disorganized, it was a lack of work,” Knoblauch said. So how come the hosts still managed to wriggle out a win? The NHL referees, many fans wail.
The Sick Podcast‘s Tony Marinaro was livid talking about the Oilers-Canadiens game. In a post on X from October 24, the seasoned NHL analyst noted his displeasure over how referees Garrett Rank and Chris Schlenker officiated the Thursday game. The Canadiens were on top of things even in the third period, leading the Oilers 5-3. But soon, things got controversial. A phantom boarding penalty against Juraj Slafkovsky, a call against Mike Matheson for tripping Connor McDavid, and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Josh Anderson helped Montreal tie the score within minutes.
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Marinaro couldn’t help but complain. Talking to Pierre McGuire, Tony grumbled, “My prediction, I don’t know that they’re not going to do anything, Pierre. What are they going to do? They’re not going to do anything. They’re not going to take these refs away from a game or whatever. But having said that, there is a big problem in tonight’s hockey game.”
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However, while the podcast’s hosts admitted that the NHL wasn’t going to take any strict actions against the refs, that didn’t stop the hockey fans from slamming the league over its poor personnel choice. “The @NHL is rigged,” fumed one fan, who just couldn’t digest the fact that the Oilers ran away with the game despite looking like the worse team of the night.