I very very rarely complain about officiating. It’s a tough job, and for the most part the refs in the NHL do it pretty well. I do, however, have a problem with the calls made (and not made) at the end of the 3rd period of tonight’s game. If you didn’t watch, here’s what happened:
Just before the end of regulation, Colton Orr threw a vicious but clean hit on a Buffalo player right in front of the Buffalo bench. As the horn sounded to end the period, Sabres forward Andrew Peters — who was not on the ice! — threw a left hook at Colton Orr from the bench. Orr responded with a shove, and Peters threw in another punch for good measure.
The only calls were a 10-minute misconduct on both Orr and Peters. What? Really? If you are the referee… what do you call? Certainly Peters deserves a misconduct, which he got. But I would argue that he deserves at least a roughing penalty as well. And why is there a misconduct on Orr? At any rate, throwing a punch from the bench is bush league.
Anyway… I can’t be too mad because the Rangers won the game. It was a closely contested match but the blueshirts got the 2 points they needed.
Eric will have some more on this game later…