This year’s NHL post season had no shortage of great storylines going into it. You have a Western Conference that is essentially one giant question mark in terms of who’s coming out on top, along with what looked to be the most dangerous Oilers team to finally let us see McJesus in the final. On the East side you have storylines like Boston with a chance to cement themselves as the greatest NHL team of all time, are the Devils the real deal (doesn’t look like it), will Toronto finally win a series, and what can the Rangers do after amassing a LOADED top 6 at the deadline.
But instead of any of the above being the talk of the playoffs, so far the playoffs have been plagued with the most questionable officiating I can remember seeing in the NHL. I get it these refs are human and can make mistakes, but every single night we are hearing about how a call was made (or not made) that completely alters the outcome of a game. I personally love watching Minnesota fail in the playoffs every single year since they’re a Central Division rival. But For Marcus Foligno to get called for TRIPPING here which led to Dallas getting the game winning goal on the power play to decide a playoff game is just disgusting.
These zebras need to understand people don’t fork out a shitload of money for playoff tickets to watch them steal the show. The playoffs are when we want to see the best players, on the best teams, going full blown gladiator match on ice for a chance at glory. It is the players time to shine, and the refs stealing their show reminds me all too much of when someone else stole a star’s spotlight:
The good news is it would be incredibly difficult for the refs to look worse than the idiot above has in recent months, but to better their chances of avoiding getting cancelled NHL refs need to follow the foot steps of a different celebrity: Kris Jenner
I can’t say I’m like Ked who has watched Keeping Up With The Kardashians religiously for years, but I do know this lady let’s her daughters aka the STARS shine. You never hear about Kris Jenner trying to steal the spotlight from her daughters. When Kim K’s home movie exploded with popularity, Kris didn’t try taking any credit. When Forbes called Kylie Jenner a self made billionaire, you didn’t see Kris go around reminding people that their entire family was loaded out the ass before Kylie could walk or that Kylie was making millions off the family TV show before getting her drivers’ license.
And that’s what we need from the refs these playoffs going forward. If some guy borderline chops a guys’ hand off with a slash, sure, call it. But enough of the zebras being the main storyline these playoffs, just do your job and let the stars shine like Kris Jenner would if she wore stripes.
The Morning Skate 