Habs’ dressing room unloads on referees like we’ve never seen before

The Edmonton Oilers inexplicably won 6-5 over the Montreal Canadiens last night and fans wondered who should have been named player of the game: referee Garrett Rank or his colleague Chris Schlenker?

At first, it looked like we were going to witness a comeback by the Habs, who rallied 5-3 after being behind 3-1. But then, according to many fans and not just the Canadiens’ ones, and according to the Habs players and head coach Martin St. Louis., the officials got involved. The team and the NHL fanbase were especially stunned when, in the third period, Josh Anderson was issued an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the wake of Leon Draisaitl’s fifth goal of the season.

“He gave two, and that gave them the game. That’s the only reason they came back,” St. Louis said.

He added, perhaps without thinking he could get fined for this:

“The Oilers won tonight, but they didn’t beat us. As coaches, we watch video and try to get better. I hope the league goes through the same process.”

His players openly called out the referees in the dressing room after the loss, the only it seemed fit after such a controversial game.

“Refs kind of took over the game there,” said Cole Caufield, “and kudos to them for winning it.”

Veteran Brendan Gallagher explained how the night unfolded as he attempted to make sense of the calls from the officials.

“I’m going to be honest with you, (it) started with Slaf’s penalty,” he said. “Talked to (the officials) after that one, they admitted it wasn’t a penalty, made a mistake.”

“Unsportsmanlike. He thought he showed him up. He didn’t. The fact that you don’t know what it is goes to show,” he responded. “Being an official, you have to understand the temperatures of the game, and that’s part of it. You have to control it, especially when it’s a close game. We were outplaying them, outshooting them, however they were getting more power plays than us. We feel like we deserved some, we didn’t get them, so fine, we’re battling, we’re playing…

“(The Oilers are) really good players, they don’t need the help.”

The Canadiens didn’t hold back on calling out both Garrett Rank and Chris Schlenker, but the result stays the same, a loss in Edmonton and a sour taste in their mouths.

I really mean it: reffing is hard and they get a lot of crap in this profession. But I can honestly say that this has been one of the worst reffed games I’ve seen in who knows how long.