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.

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.” 

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 worst team of the night.

Following the penalty call against Anderson (he was seen hitting the ice with his stick while looking at Schlenker), Brendan Gallagher was seen getting into a heated exchange with the NHL official. “I’m going to be honest with you, started with Slaf’s penalty. Talked to him after that one, they admitted it wasn’t a penalty, made a mistake,” Gallagher said later, about what went down between him and the ref.

Montreal forward Cole Caufield was also visibly agitated by the match result and the NHL officials’ part in the Oilers’ win. “The refs kind of took over the game there and kudos to them for winning it,” Caufield said with a blunt expression after the match. The fans seemed to agree.

Fans thrash NHL referees for their calls

The Oilers didn’t have a great start to the season. A series of defeats, both at home and on the road, has made fans question if this is the team that made it to the championship series in back-to-back seasons. The situation is so bad that both star forwards, McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, had to confess that the squad has been looking deplorable. Obviously, the latest win marred by controversies didn’t help the team’s image. “Those officials were brutal,” commented one fan, who was also irked by how the trip on McDavid was called without hesitation.

The playoff series between the Dallas Stars and the Oilers from last season caused a lot of debate. In Game 2, Darnell Nurse slashed Roope Hintz. Nurse received only a two-minute minor, prompting the Stars’ coach, Pete DeBoer, to claim that a hit like that on McDavid wouldn’t go unnoticed by the refs. Then, only last week, fans were once again furious over how McDavid was slashed by the Canucks’ defenseman Tyler Myers. And now, with the Oilers getting this sort of advantage against the Canadiens, fans were justifiably throwing shades at the team and the NHL in general.

“They can alleviate a lot of this by allowing coaches to challenge calls. Marty could have challenged the boarding call,” one fan suggested a viable solution to the problem. But others weren’t sure that the NHL would opt for it. “They won’t do anything. Why? Because by doing something they prove that the officiating has an issue,” one fan claimed that the league would rather turn a blind eye to the issues rather than address the same head-on.

“It was shady as hell,” another fan also wasn’t convinced by what went down at the Rogers Place.

What did you think of the officials’ calls? Share your take in a comment!