Jake Walman might be a bit of a hothead. It’s not even been a week since his controversial (read: expensive) Game 3 outing vs the Florida Panthers. In an infamous and somewhat head-scratching moment, the Oilers player had started squirting a water bottle toward Panthers forward A.J. Greer on the Florida bench, after the latter had swiped one of Walman’s gloves. The water failed to hit the intended target, and instead hit the TNT broadcast video screen, prompting analyst Brian Boucher to bang his elbow on the glass. Florida’s Seth Jones, though, was amused as he raised his hands in mock confusion. The NHL? Well, not so much.

Soon after the game ended (a 6-1 loss for Edmonton), the league slapped a $5,000 fine—the first of two for Walman that night. When the second controversy erupted, there were no childish acts like before, but rather a full-blown fistfight. As captured on video, Walman was seen punching Matthew Tkachuk on his face, as the Oilers’ John Klinberg held the latter down. “We talked about it in the third. If you have to take a punch in the face, take a punch in the face. If you have to take a cross-check, take a cross-check. Spear, slash in the face, whatever the case is, you’ve got to take it,” Tkachuk had stated after the contest, while his opponent garnered himself another $5,000 penalty…

The debate surrounding that had barely died down when, cut to Game 5, as the Oilers ended their night with a 5-2 loss against the Panthers. Even on this occasion, the defenseman got himself involved in yet another situation.

With the score at 2-0 in favor of the Panthers at the end of the first period, Walman tried to stir the pot a little by giving Sam Bennett a shove in front of Pickard’s goal. Unsurprisingly, the shove elicited a response from Bennett, who’s not really known for being a gentleman on the ice. Remember how he punched an unsuspecting Brad Marchand during Game 3 of the playoffs last year?

That being said, his punch to Marchand had much more weight than the action last year. But Walman still tried his best to make the most out of it. While the Panthers’ No. 9 delivered a chest-level push to Walman, the Oilers D-man flung his head back as if to pretend he had been punched right in the face. As explained by Gino Hard on social media, “Jake Walman tries drawing a penalty after getting shoved by Sam Bennett 😭💀”. All that effort, however, went in vain as there was no call, and the officials were quick to pacify the situation and guide the teams off the ice for the break.

However, it’s understandable why Walman would want to target Bennett, considering the center had extended the Panthers’ lead to 2-0 with just under two minutes left in the first period. He now rides a six-game point streak and leads the league with 15 goals this postseason. He’s also managed to record 7 assists, 103 hits, and no less than a plus-6 rating over the twenty-two games he’s played in this postseason. And at the end of the day, as Bennett had the last laugh, fans went after Walman for what went down…

Fans express fury over Jake Walman’s unnecessary hit on Bennett

One fan thought that the officials should have done much more than just jumping in to break up what could have been a full-blown brawl. “This is where an embellishment call needs to be made,” they wrote, referring to how Jake Walman appeared to milk the shove from Bennett for a penalty. The NHL has strict rules to deter embellishment and/or diving. In January this year, Oskar Sundqvist of the St. Louis Blues was fined $2,000 as supplementary discipline under NHL Rule 64 for what appeared like a dive during a game against the Utah Hockey Club. The forward had previously received a warning after recording a similar offence in a November game against the New York Rangers.

“Don’t believe he’s a repeat offender. The refs have brought it to this level (especially the duo reffing tonight),” wrote another fan, also believing that the officiating in the match was far from ideal. And as far as just Walman’s initial push on Bennett is concerned, one fan thought he tried to get the wrong guy upset: “watch the series, clearly mocking bennett.” Bennett is currently sitting at the top of this postseason’s goal-scoring leaderboard and is also one of the frontrunners for the Conn Smythe trophy.

“He did that last game too,” wrote another netizen, seemingly upset with Walman’s track record. “He has been embarrassing this whole series. Becoming my most hated player in NHL. Dude is no class,” another fan echoed. Well, as things stand, Jake Walman may need to keep such antics to a minimum. The Oilers have had an obvious penalty problem this final series, and Walman better tread carefully if he wants his team to come back from the 3-2 deficit.