The New York Rangers, who are still fighting to get back into the race for a playoff spot, “lost” to the Minnesota Wild tonight. Now with only 22 games remaining, the Rangers are 10 points out of the playoffs. Every single game is crucial for the Rangers if they hope to get back in the hunt.
However, how can they win when the officiating is inconsistent or just plain outright bad. In the Rangers’ 6-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins last Sunday, the officials made bad call after bad call. Although the Penguins only scored once on the power play, their four power plays greatly shifted the momentum of the game to their side. Two of their power plays were a result of a clearly poor officiating. During the game, both the Rangers and the Penguins were making heavy contact and committing hooking and holding, but the Rangers were the only team called for such penalties, except when they penalized Penguins’ Bryan Rust for starting a fight. Had the game been officiated correctly, it would have been a much better game as a Rangers-Penguins match up is always a classic.
Tonight’s game was even worse. The officiating crew was led by Wes McCauley and Francois St. Laurent. St. Laurent was involved also in the Penguins game, although he cannot be fully blamed for this game because he was injured in the middle. The referees only called a total of three penalties in this game. One in favor of the Minnesota Wild and two in favor of the Rangers. The officials missed a call near the start of the game when Lias Andersson, who the Rangers recalled from the AHL today, was slashed on the hands following his shot on net. Since last season, the NHL has gotten much stricter about slashing to the hands of players. That should have certainly been called. Also, multiple times Ranger players were taken down with no penalty on the Wild. In the final period with Minnesota defending a 2-1 lead, Kevin Hayes was taken down and lost the puck right in front of the net. The Wild’s Zach Parise scored an easy goal on the play. At first, it appeared that Hayes had collided with his teammate. However, after they showed the replay, it was clear that the stick of Minnesota’s Eric Staal got his skating, causing him to slip and lose the puck. Instead of a power player play for the Rangers, the Wild took a 3-1 lead. Shortly after, Jimmy Vesey was hit with a high stick. This time a penalty was caused. In fact, they called a double minor four minute power play. During the play, however, Zuccarello was also tripped. It should have been a 5 on 3 power play for the Rangers. The Wild, who had most of the momentum, killed the power play, scored an empty net goal, and won the game 4-1. Once again, the missed calls played a huge part in the momentum swing of this game. I think the referees need to be consistent with their calls.
