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Ryan Hartman unloads on NHL referee Ghislain Hebert.
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Ryan Hartman unloads on NHL referee Ghislain Hebert.

The Minnesota Wild are furious with NHL referee Ghislain Hebert and they are speaking out.

Jonathan Larivee

It would appear that Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman has had all he can stomach when it comes to National Hockey League referee Ghislain Hebert.

On Saturday night, Hartman tore into Hebert over a number of different scenarios that have occurred over the course of the past week, including two from today's game between the aforementioned Wild and the Calgary Flames.

First, Hartman began by calling out Hebert for making a goaltender interference call from what Wild reporter Michael Russo described as "100 feet away" from the play, with Hartman accusing Hebert of discrediting his own officiating partner who was standing over the net and opted not to make that same call.

"The ref that's right there seeing it doesn't make a call," said Hartman. "And then the ref that has a net in front of him and can't see actually what happened and just looking at the result, ... and kind of an FU to his partner."

The real call out from Hartman however would come when he was asked about a series of cross checks he received courtesy of Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, with no penalty being called by Hebert on the play. Hartman quickly pointed out that this wasn't the first time that Hebert had caused issued for the Wild this week.

"We’re missing our best player right now and there was no penalty call on that," said Hartman clearly hinting at frustration from earlier in the week.

One of the reasons that Hartman is so upset at Hebert is the fact that Hebert was also the referee that opted not to call a penalty on the play that resulted in an injury to Wild star Kirill Kaprizov. That injury occurred earlier this week during a game between the Wild and the Edmonton Oilers when Oilers forward Drake Caggiula went knee on knee with Kaprizov during the course of that game.

The NHL is generally very quick and very harsh when it comes to punishing players and coaches who are critical of their on ice officials and you have to wonder if Hartman may hear from the league given his comments today. While Hartman wasn't particularly rude or bombastic, there was no question that he was specifically call out Hebert directly which may not sit well with the league.