Insider calls for refs to be held accountable and face media after terrible officiating in Rangers game
The New York rangers and Montreal Canadiens game ended with a tight 4-3 finish.
The game was riddled with penalties, as near the end of the 2nd period referees put some Habs in the penalty box, along with some Rangers players.
Eric Engels of Sportsnet covered the postgame conference which features Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis was unhappy with the results.
While St. Louis wasn't going to call out the officials for their lack of accountability for their questionable calls, Eric Engels would.
He questions the culpability of veteran referees like Kelly Sutherland, and Francis Charron with 2,271 games officiated between the two and 12 Stanley Cup games officiated dropped the ball.
Their calls went above and beyond officiating as they had a major impact on the game.
Neither Kelly Sutherland nor Francis Charron would be available after the game to explain their calls. Nor would their bosses be available to comment, which Engels thinks, that there should be a modicum of accountability for the profession.
The referees missed significant calls during the game, including a penalty on Alexis Lafreniere, by Arber Xhekaj where he'd clipped his knee. Sam Carrick would attempt to make Xhekaj answer the bell but would receive a penalty for it.
But Sutherland and Charron missed a crosscheck from New York's Chris Kreider on Josh Anderson in the same frame and their biggest miss of the afternoon came on the play that ended up winning the game for the Rangers.
They also missed a trip of Joel Armia by Rangers forward Will Cuylle, which would lead to a Kakko goal after the fact.
Other egregious penalties:
It took Sutherland and Charron roughly 10 minutes to figure out who to penalize before sending three players from each side to the box - none of them being Dach - and (seemingly) arbitrarily deciding the Rangers should get a power play out of it.
The cartoonish calls would even go as far as to penalize Arber Xhekaj during the altercation and would give the Rangers a man advantage.
Yet none of the referees involved would hold themselves accountable to the NHL audience by announcing who was penalized or why. Per Engels:
While this is a story that centers on the Rangers and Canadiens in this instance, this could happen to any team in the NHL on any night.
The NHL has seemed to give the officials immunity from accountability. This would explain why he'd hold off on accumulating a fine, compared to someone like John Tortorella who'd fly off the hinges and call out Toronto immediately.
We should hold the NHL and its officials to higher standards because right now there are none.
