Under no circumstances should an NHL player EVER make physical contact with an on-ice official during the course of a game. About the only exception to this rule is after a game ends if a player wants to shake hands with the officials to say, “thank you.” Otherwise, it’s hands off!
During Sunday night’s Game Three tilt between the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets, Mason Marchment very clearly whacked referee Graham Skilliter on the leg with his stick, out of frustration after what he felt were multiple “no-penalty” calls on plays he was involved in. The fact that Marchment was not tossed from the game was nothing short of a travesty, but obviously, the Stars aren’t complaining.
As many analysts have mentioned, it is disgusting and a dangerous precedent to set for The League to not discipline Marchment. They brought up how, over the years, many players were suspended multiple games, in the neighborhood of 10 contests, for making contact with an official.
However, there was another infamous incident in which a player DID NOT receive any punishment for making contact with an official and one could argue that one was worse. During Game Seven of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals, Rangers’ goalie Mike Richter bumped and pinned referee Billy McCreary against the boards after Valeri Zelepukin scored the game-tying goal with 7.7 seconds remaining in the third period.
That Richter wasn’t tossed and suspended was nothing short of a miracle for the Blueshirts. Had New York’s netminder been tossed, it is a virtual guarantee they would have lost that game in overtime and their Stanley Cup drought would now be at 85 years and counting. Whereas, if Marchment had been tossed and banned, the Stars likely still would have won Game Three.
So, while it is appalling that The NHL did not punish the Stars’ forward, it is not necessarily going to become the precedent-setting move that many analysts fear it will. After all, there have been plenty of instances between the time of Richter’s bump and Marchment’s whack that did lead to punishment. So, for now, let’s let cooler heads prevail and we’ll keep an eye on things going forward. And to the players still competing in the playoffs, HANDS OFF THE OFFICIALS!
Moving on to another playoff topic, but sticking with the same series, what the heck has happened to Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck? And what is Dallas’ Mikko Rantanen eating?
Starting with Hellebuyck, has a reigning Vezina Trophy winner (and presumed winner for this season) ever fallen so far, so hard? Especially on the road? He has lost his last EIGHT road playoff games going back to last year’s postseason, surrendering at least four goals in each one; seven times allowing five or more.
In this playoff year, he’s currently 0-4 on the road with a .772 SV% and 6.65 GAA. Any goalie who performs that badly needs to be benched. For a presumed, soon-to-be, back-to-back Vezina Trophy winner, it’s downright startling.
At this point, Hellebuyck needs to be benched before he begins to lose confidence in himself. He hasn’t been great at home in this year’s playoffs, but he’s still been plenty better than he is on the road. The Jets should sit him for Game Four just so he has a chance to get a rest and maybe get his head right. Because if this trend continues, it’s going to become a much bigger story than it already is and that’s when his confidence will be at risk of deteriorating beyond repair.
On the other side, Rantanen might be on the biggest “I told you so” run in recent NHL history. When he was shockingly traded from Colorado to Carolina, many people spoke about how he likely wouldn’t be the same player away from Nathan MacKinnon. Those people felt emboldened when he struggled during his exceptionally brief tenure with the Hurricanes. Then, when Carolina flipped him to Dallas, those same people watched him continue to struggle and puffed their chests out even more.
Well…
In his last six games, dating back to Game Five versus Colorado, Rantanen has 17 points (9G, 8A), two hat-tricks and two four-point periods. Not even Popeye, after eating his spinach, was this much of a menace to his opponents. Which leads us to the question: where are all those doubters and haters now? Rantanen has literally become a one-man wrecking crew and Dallas might very well end up riding this wave to a Cup championship if it continues much longer. In fact, if he does continue his torrid pace all the way through The Cup Final, then he’ll almost certainly run away with the Conn Smythe award as the playoff MVP.
On that note, let’s pivot away from the playoffs to a little piece of news you may have missed with all the excitement going on. It seems like momentum is building for The League to once more try and gain a foothold in Atlanta. Commissioner Gary Bettman has said and continues to state that The League is not actively looking to expand, but recent reports suggest that a third try in Atlanta might very well be in the offing, to which we’re reminded of an old saying. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” With that in mind, who is the shame on when you get fooled three times?
Lastly, with the reports out there that the Islanders might keep Lou Lamoriello on as an advisor to whoever they hire in the GM and Team President roles, is it really all that surprising that the once interesting opening is now much less coveted? After all, who wants to take a job where they will have to work with the person they are supposed to be replacing? That’s just awkward.
