“This Panthers-Leafs series has been pure chaos so far,” said TSN’s Pierre LeBrun as the Toronto Maple Leafs went up 2-0 against the Florida Panthers in Round 2. Yet, despite the defending champions losing two in a row, all anyone could talk about was a particular call on the Panthers’ Evan Rodrigues. While both games have seen their fair share of hits, the NHL world became engaged in heated debate about the Scott Laughton hitting Rodrigues from behind.

While fans are often up in arms about certain hits or missed calls, even analysts couldn’t agree with the decision. The analysts’ panel on Sportsnet discussed the officials giving Rodrigues a two-minute penalty for embellishment, but just couldn’t agree. “That was such a dangerous hit and dirty hit,” said one of them about Laughton, hitting the Panthers forward from behind and smashing him into the boards.

Another analyst stated that while “embellishment has been a scourge on this playoff,” he didn’t think what Rodrigues did qualified. “I just don’t know how you can look at that and say that one’s embellishment,” said the Sportsnet analyst. And they were far from the only ones. In fact, former NHL goaltender turned NESN analyst Andrew Raycroft said, “That’s the craziest embellishment call in the history of the NHL.”

Even NHL Network’s Jackie Redmond questioned what she believed was the most puzzling call in a long time. “I raaaaarely comment on officiating. I hate getting involved in the discourse of it. But that ain’t embellishment. I actually don’t even know how you could argue that it is in any way. Like, what’s the argument?” she asked the league.

However, the league is yet to respond to either the experts’ or fans’ questions. So let’s take a look at Rule 64.1 of the NHL rulebook. Refs can penalize, “Any player who blatantly dives, embellishes a fall or a reaction, or who feigns an injury,” as per the rule. While it’s clear that the referees thought Rodrigues met either of these criteria, few others did. What’s more? This wouldn’t be the first time the officials have slipped up during this year’s playoffs.

The continuing NHL officiating debate

As one of the analysts pointed out, embellishment has been an issue in the playoffs. Former NHL player and coach Don Cherry also addressed the issue during the Grapevine Podcast on April 27. “It’s here to stay. You’ll never get it out of the game. Now, everybody snaps their head back now. Yeah, every guy snaps their head back and acts like they’re hurt,” Cherry said while explaining the situation.

This may be one of the reasons why the officials are coming down hard. However, the NHL community argued that Evan Rodrigues didn’t even get the space to dive. Instead, he slammed into the board face-first and even entered the tunnel before coming back shortly. And the community wants answers because the refs have far from a perfect record in this year’s playoffs.

Even the Habs coach Martin St. Louis expressed his issues with the officiating in the first round. “I’ll be careful with my words, but it’s hard to watch some of these calls,” said the Canadiens coach after Game 4 against the Washington Capitals. While the veteran also mentioned “cleaning up” the embellishment issues, he didn’t agree with the officials’ calls.

And although Martin St. Louis chose his words carefully, the fans didn’t hesitate to call out when the refs made arguably the biggest slip-up of the playoffs so far. Case in point? Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad flooring Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel with an elbow. While the refs missed the calls, the NHL reviewed the infraction and went so far as to suspend Ekblad for two games. Will a similar review now follow after the Evan Rodrigues controversy? Tell us what you think in the comments.