Outrage on social media over terrible, potentially game changing, calls from NHL officials.

Every single fan base in the National Hockey League has taken issue at one point or another with how the games that involve their favorite teams have been officiated. This often leads to baseless accusations of biased officiating and although it may look like that on the surface, you should never attribute to malice what can be attributed to pure incompetence. 

Now that is a good rule to live by and while I also think that is likely the case in this particular incident, I have no doubt that the fans of the Carolina Hurricanes are going to feel absolutely robbed after what they witnessed on Saturday afternoon. The Hurricanes were facing off against the Washington Capitals in Game 2 of their first round playoff match up in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs and things really went off the rails as far as the officiating in this game is concerned. 

To provide the proper context here a hit that occurred early in the game and appeared to catch Carolina Hurricanes forward Brock McGinn in the head was ruled to be worthy of a 2 minute minor penalty by the National Hockey League officials overseeing this game. That one came courtesy of Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin and it was a hit that drew blood from the face and nose of McGinn. There is also the possibility that Ovechkin left his feet to make contact with Brock McGinn's face, but his skates elevating happens right as contact is made so we will give him the benefit of the doubt on that one. Now this call all on it's own is really a non issue if you ask me, but a call that would come later in the game paints it in a disturbing light.

The Hurricanes were struggling to get back into the game after being down early when Carolina Hurricanes forward Micheal Ferland lined up Washington Capitals forward Nick Dowd and leveled him with a punishing, if somewhat awkward, hip check. I will grant the NHL officials that this hit looked questionable in real time, but the call that followed left many watching from around the world in total shock. Ferland was awarded a 5 minute major and ejected from the game for what the officials deemed was an illegal hit to the head but there was just one major problem, Ferland never made contact with Dowd's head. The outrage that has followed this call has been intense and has united pundits from all around the National Hockey League.

I'm not saying the officials were biased, mainly because I do not believe that to be true, however I can't blame fans in Carolina for feeling some type of way about this one. 

[pub]

Here's how some people are reacting to these calls.

The best reaction though was that of Hurricanes head coach Rob Brind'Amour.