First things first, the Oilers lost the game because they weren’t better than the Lightning. Tampa’s goaltending was right on par and their stars took advantage of the chances gifted to them. That’s on Edmonton first and foremost. They’ve got to better so that they don’t find themselves down three goals and being the recipients of poor hits that might result in a silly reaction or two.
But I have ZERO problems with what Milan Lucic did. He was sticking up for a teammate because the refs were having difficulty discerning what side of the rope the blindside hit Kris Russell received from Mathieu Joseph was on.
Team records with tonight's refs ('17-18):
#LetsGoOilers: 4-4 (50%)
#GoBolts: 9-0 (100%)https://t.co/DExmWcf1Id#EDMvsTBL #EDM #TBL— Scouting The Refs (@ScoutingTheRefs) November 6, 2018
The officials have the ability to nip this sort of stuff right in the bud and I’m of the belief that the players actually expect them to and give them the benefit of the doubt most of the time and so they let a lot of stuff go.
Last night, while both teams were called fairly evenly in the number of penalties they received (6 for Edmonton and 5 for Tampa), I don’t actually think the officials did a great job of managing the game and we saw the result of that when Milan Lucic felt the need to take things into his own hands.
How do you think the Oilers felt when the refs ignored this blatant interference penalty on Connor McDavid?
🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/YwDQkOrVZ3
— TheBouch🇨🇦 (@78Bouch) November 7, 2018
Sometimes things come to a head with these non-calls and I get it, the refs feel like they could call a penalty on McDavid every shift or every second shift because the only way other teams can slow him down is to hold him or lay some lumber on him so I’m acceptant of how things are but you’ve got at least two blown calls, (Stralman interference and the Joseph blindside hit) possibly three if you include the hit on Klefbom from Paquette early on, that aren’t being whistled down, so the players feel like the refs aren’t doing their duty and take it upon themselves to sort it out.
Curious why #Lucic went apeshit on #Joseph? It's for this garbage hit on Kris Russell.
Good officiating right there! #EDMvsTBL
Grab a shirt here:https://t.co/FhyNzPg1VN pic.twitter.com/IefyLQ48ti
— BLH (Edmonton Oilers Enthusiast} (@BeerLeagueHeroe) November 7, 2018
DODGY hit mate! I know that these two hits aren’t exactly the same but I do feel like they’re not that far apart either. Take a look at this hit that got Duncan Keith ejected from the game in Calgary from a few days ago and let me know your thoughts.
With both hits I see two vulnerable players getting blindsided. Now, they both made the choice to position their bodies in the manner they did and does that remove responsibility from the hitters or should Keith/Joseph have been more mindful?
I will say this though, how confident does Mathieu Joseph feel being Cedric Paquette’s linemate? It took a sword fight at centre-ice with Ryan Strome for Paquette to finally get called and correct me if I’m wrong, Joseph had been playing on the edge for a good portion of the game. I’d also be willing to bet that a couple of Oilers had let them know previously in the match that their on-ice behavior was unacceptable and to cut it out.
But they didn’t and in my opinion, Oilers head coach Todd McLellan’s opinion and countless other’s opinions, the right action was taken.
So here we are. If you feel like it’s okay for your player(s) to run around without consequence then we’ll probably disagree on this topic. If you feel like Joseph should’ve been called for at least a 2-minute minor but Lucic went over the line, I can empathize with you.
I want to watch the hockey game one more time to see if there were some trigger points in the game and I’ll report back in a day or two if I find anything interesting.
