Spezza, McDavid incidents prove NHL officiating is broken

Spezza and Neal Pionk will receive suspensions, but the officials who didn't penalize either of them and allowed the situation to escalate face no public accountability

This mugging inexplicably earned Pierre-Luc Dubois and Auston Matthews coincidental minors.

So here we are on a Monday afternoon, just hours after a game that one of the best players in the world referred to as “a gong show,” and Neal Pionk of the Winnipeg Jets and Jason Spezza of the Toronto Maple Leafs face the potential of a very meticulous and public breakdown of their actions in that game in the form of NHL suspensions.

And that’s as it should be. Pionk has a phone hearing and Spezza has been offered an in-person hearing, and both will almost certainly be suspended. Pionk deserves one because his knee-on-knee on Rasmus Sandin was at worst sneaky-dirty and at best reckless. And Spezza will be suspended longer because what he did to Pionk was completely reprehensible, unacceptable and pre-meditated. It was also potentially dangerous. And if Spezza gets more games than Pionk, as he should, there will likely be the usual hue and cry from a certain quarter that the league is biased against the Leafs. Which is, of course, complete hogwash. The NHL does not play favorites. It is equally inconsistent and infuriatingly bad with every team.

When Pionk and Spezza are handed their suspensions, NHL director of player safety George ‘The Violent Gentleman’ Parros will narrate a Zapruder-like video of both indiscretions, going into minute detail exactly where they violated the NHL rulebook. That will be posted for all to see, and Pionk and Spezza will sit for an undetermined number of games and feel shame.

But what of the Chuck Barris of Sunday night’s gong show, referees Brad Meier and Reid Anderson? (If you don’t get that one, look it up.) In the space of under three minutes in the third period of Sunday night’s game, Meier and Anderson allowed the game to deteriorate into a mess. It all started when Meier watched intently as Pierre-Luc Dubois of the Jets repeatedly mauled Auston Matthews and, inexplicably, gave them coincidental minors for roughing. Then, on the ensuing 4-on-4, Meier once again watched as Pionk went knee-on-knee with Sandin, knocking the Leafs defenseman out of the game. Then Spezza, who was screaming at Meier from the Leafs’ bench, took matters into his own hands and delivered his dangerous hit on Pionk, who was down on the ice trying to clear the puck with his hand. The remainder of the game after that was basically a scene from Slap Shot.

But there will be no public admonishment or condemnation for either Meier or Anderson. That is not to say there won’t be repercussions for both of them, but whatever sanctions given to them, if any, will be clandestine and private. The only time we really know what the NHL thinks of its officials is in the post-season when it hands out playoff assignments. The ones who are on the sidelines after the regular season have done a sub-par job.

Even though both Meier and Anderson epitomized everything that is wrong with NHL officiating in the 21st century, both will escape public scrutiny, while Spezza and Pionk will be publicly outed. But the fact is, if either referee had seen fit to call a penalty on Pionk and get him out of the game, there would have been no need for a usually level-headed Spezza to seek revenge.

Connor McDavid, who was ejected Sunday night, has drawn 10 penalties in his past eight games.

Which brings us to another incident that happened Sunday night in a game between the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings. McDavid was dragged down in the neutral zone by Adrien Kempe with no penalty called by either Cory Syvret or Pierre Lambert. After the Oilers entered the Kings’ zone and play stopped, McDavid bumped Kempe from behind and was ejected for boarding. Clinging to a 2-1 lead, the Kings scored three power-play goals to seal the victory.

In isolation, there should be no issue with McDavid receiving a major penalty for what he did. But here’s the thing: if Kempe had been called for his infraction on McDavid, as he should have, the play would have been blown dead once Drew Doughty retrieved the puck behind the net and McDavid would not have had an opportunity to hit Kempe. Speaking of McDavid, in his first 15 games this season, he had drawn just five penalties. Fifty-three players had drawn more to that point. Then it became a talking point, with John Tortorella telling McDavid to “just shut up,” and in the eight games since, something remarkable has happened. McDavid has drawn 10 penalties and now sits third in the league in penalties drawn. Don’t tell me that NHL officials don’t manage games.

Two incidents, two more examples of the fact that NHL officiating is broken. But instead of making its officials accountable, the NHL fines Rod Brind’Amour $25,000 for berating them and send out a strongly worded memo warning to all coaches that they will be watched closely for similar behavior.

Nobody expects perfection. And there is nobody out there who believes every infraction will be seen. But when these things happen right around the puck and the middle of the play and two qualified NHL referees don’t make a call, it makes you wonder what they’re looking at. It also makes you wonder whether the league has instilled a mentality in them that prompts them to accept a certain level of rule breaking. For my money, it has always been the latter. And Sunday night was a perfect example of what ensues when that mentality is applied.