Hockey

For Martin St-Louis to plant the referees, they have to have been more than just bad
Charles-Alexis Brisebois
For Martin St-Louis to plant the referees, they have to have been more than just bad
Credit: YouTube

Last night, the Canadiens lost 6-5 to the Oilers, and after a relatively quiet start, tempers flared as the game wore on. Andwhen I say Montreal, I mean the fans and the club.Cole Caufield said the referees had taken control of the game, and he took the time to congratulate them on the win. Brendan Gallagher (the referees' best friend) said the Oilers didn't need the referees' help to win, and added that the referees admitted that Juraj Slafkovsky's penalty wasn't really a penalty, in hindsight.

But what the Habs players didn't like, I think, was the fact that normally, referees try to make amends. They try to give a penalty to the other team to “even things up”. Not only did this not happen, but the Habs were given three more penalties as a result, including one on Josh Anderson for unsportsmanlike conduct. The Canadiens' veteran misjudged the temperature of the game and insulted the referees, so he was punished – and it didn't make the Canadiens' players happy, as they felt the referees were taking control of the game.

Giving the Oilers a gift like that didn't pay off. The club was already slipping away and Samuel Montembeault was still trying to find his bearings…The Habs didn't help themselves, even if some of the blame lies with the referees. Were the referees trying to make up for the fact that one of Cole Caufield's goals shouldn't have been good, considering the fact that the puck had been thrown into the net just before?

Who knows

But what I do know is that Martin St-Louis normally keeps his cool in front of the media and refuses to make excuses for his team's defeats. Yesterday, he didn't use that as an excuse, but he did stick it to the referees publicly. He said he hoped people around the league would do what the coaches do: watch video to improve. #Ouch

St-Louis also said he'd had no explanation for Josh Anderson's penalty. Soeven though the Oilers sometimes deserved to be punished, the Habs only had one powerplay. The Oilers, on the other hand, had five in the game. content-ads]The whole thing should be taken as a learning situation for the Canadiens. After all, the guys need to understand that even if the referees stole the game (for the wrong reasons) in favor of the home team and the best player on the planet, the players' job is to stand up and win regardless. That didn't happen, as on penalties from Mike Matheson and Josh Anderson, the Oilers scored. It was 5-3 before all that, and then the Oilers brought both teams back to square one. And at the very end of the game, the hosts won the duel via a goal with 69 seconds left in the game. This was the icing on the sundae… and brought to the surface Gary Bettman's old comments about the NHL's excellent officiating.

Nobody pays to see referees give phantom penalties and it's a shame for the fans, yesterday's game. But the Canadiens should keep in mind that against Chicago earlier this season, referees gave 10 penalties to the Hawks. Sometimes it goes one way, sometimes the other. spacer title='prolongation]The guys' goal at this point will be to let the frustration go and make sure they win the next game, which takes place tomorrow night (7 p.m. Quebec time) in Vancouver. Today, the club has the day off.

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