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New York Rangers Game Notes

Rangers vs. Golden Knights: Welcome to the Ref Show

Officiating disaster aside, a strong pushback, big performances, and a 4-1-2 stretch raise the question: maybe this team actually has something?

Eric Kohn

Eric Kohn

— 5 min read
Rangers vs. Golden Knights: Welcome to the Ref Show
© Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
  • Well, let's not waste any time here. This game was the Ref Show. I really feel it takes a lot for me to primarily complain about the officiating, or really as anything more than just noting "the officiating wasn't great," and then focusing on the hockey that was played. But this? Wooooooooof.
  • Those matching roughing minors at the end of the game were incandescently stupid. A level of idiocy that could be seen from space. As Alex Faust and Brian Boyle noted, both Will Borgen and former Ranger Brett Howden (who I only yesterday learned was traded for the draft pick that became Noah Laba, so that's nice) had been going it at it all night long. The referees had let them play through all of it. Until there were two minutes left in the game? Come. On.
  • Those calls were a double whammy, too. First they took two players off the ice at the end of the game, so when Vegas pulled Carter Hart for an extra attacker it was a 5-on-4, not a 6-on-5. There's a lot more ice to work with there if you’re Vegas. Then, because the penalties were called at 18:02 of the third period, they ended two seconds into overtime, and the teams ended up skating at 4-on-4 for most of the extra period. So, in the exact situation where the league rules for overtime are trying to open up the ice more, there was less ice than there should have been. Just all around crap.
  • When you add to that the absurd sequence where Artemi Panarin was tripped and it wasn't called, only to have Panarin be called for a high stick seconds later, thanks to some truly fantastic head-snap acting from Brayden McNabb...
  • ...and the no call on the trip on Matthew Robertson in overtime...
  • ...just a dismal performance by the officials. Embarrassing. Mike Sullivan had every right to be as vein-poppingly pissed off as he was.

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