NHL referee called out after brutal call against Brad Marchand.

A National Hockey League referee is under fire after a rather terrible call on Saturday night.

The Boston Bruins were taking on the Nashville Predators on Saturday night and during the first period of the match up referee Marc Joannette called notorious Boston Bruins' agitator Brad Marchand for a high stick against Nashville Predators Colton Sissons. Marchand was awarded a 2 minute minor penalty on the play but the issue with the call was that Marchand's stick quite clearly never made contact with Sissons face, and instead the reality of the situation was that Sissons had completely faked his reaction. 

Now to be fair to Joanette here Marchand does have quite the reputation for stepping over the line when it comes to his antics on the ice, but the reality of the situation is that an National Hockey League referee should not be calling a penalty on a play that he did not see. Clearly the call was a reputation call however and Marchand was, understandably, none too happy about being sent to the box for something he did not do. As Joanette was escorting Marchand to the bench the Bruins agitator began to do some embellishment of his own, pretending to clutch his head and face in pain all the while staring right as Sissons, clearly an attempt to mock the young Predators forward. 

Joanette was none too impressed by Marchand's antics and by the time it was all said and done he had awarded Marchand yet another minor penalty on the play for unsportsmanlike conduct. Now if that was all that had happened I think perhaps many would have been more forgiving of the mistake from Joanette, but the referee then went way overboard when he gave Marchand an additional 10 minute misconduct at the end of the period.

Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy did not hesitate to call out Joanette for what was now an objectively horrendous call on the ice.

"He's had his run-ins with the law," Cassidy said as per USA Today. "but the 10-minute misconduct, I thought, was out of line. (The referee) could have talked to him, talked him off, say, 'I've heard your piece, now move along.' "

Marchand was also clearly frustrated after the game and called out Joanette for biting on a dive, a play that he clearly never saw as the high stick simply did not happen.

"He bit on the embellishment," Marchand said after the game about Joannette, "and that's a tough time to call with less than a second left in the period in a game like that, so yeah, it's frustrating."

However it was Boston Bruins insider Joe Haggerty who had the least kind words Joanette after the game calling the NHL official "bush league," for making a call on a play he did not see. 

From Haggerty:

 A bush league move by referee Marc Joannette in the first period where he botched a high-sticking call on Brad Marchand where the stick clearly didn’t hit Colton Sissons in any way, shape or form...  Joannette needs to have a little accountability in that situation as well.   

The NHL however has a history of letting their referees get away with horrendous calls, so unfortunately for Haggerty and the Bruins I don't think he will be held accountable for one of the worst calls of the season.

[pub]