Chris Lee Officiating Montreal Canadiens Game August 19, 2020

Chris Lee Officiating Montreal Canadiens Game August 19, 2020

Written by Fred Arshoff & Chad Martin

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Imagine knowing in advance exactly how a game is going to go based on the Referee selected.

Conspiracy theories aside, it seems to us almost every game that NHL (National Hockey League) referee Chris Lee works is a game the Montreal Canadiens lose more than they win. On the flip side, when Lee does referee a Philadelphia Flyers game (until yesterday) they have lost a grand total of zero games in the past two seasons. Thats extremely suspicious and biased, especially considering that a referee in any sport has to be neutral.

Now lets exam two incidents that happened on August 19th. Jesperi Kotkaniemi received a five minute major penalty for boarding which calls for an automatic game misconduct in the NHL. The play itself wasn’t worth more than a two minute penalty for boarding. What happened next was the kicker: Philadelphia Flyer’s head coach Alain Vigneault called the referees to the bench to tell them that his player was injured. Calling the ref over we feel played a hand in the penalty being a major instead of a standard two or four minute penalty for boarding, neither of which would have resulted in a game misconduct. As a result, for the majority of the game, the HABS where playing one man short thus players had to be double shifted, To add insult to injury, in the five minute major the Flyer’s scored not one but two goals.

Now let’s examine incident number two when Brendon Gallagher was cross checked in the face. It’s bad enough that a major wasn’t called as Galliger was bleeding and missing teeth; there was no penalty called at all. The only good thing is that the NHL department of player safety will hold a hearing on this act. Also Flyer’s head coach Vigneaul was quoted after the game that this was a normal hockey play. We don’t see crossing checking anyone in the face a normal hockey play. Gallagher has to go August 20th for a scan to see if his jaw is broken and if it how badly, to determine if it has to be wired, If it needs to be wired shut, Gallagher will miss the rest of the playoffs, Just for going to have the scan done as it will be done most likely in a hospital. Gallagher did leave the bubble and have to quarantine for four days. At a minimum the guilty player has to be given a suspension of at least the same number of games Gallagher will miss.

We also feel as Lee is very biased he shouldn’t be allowed to officiate another NHL game this season or ever. As we stated in opening all the on ice officials must be neutral.

Let’s hope Gallagher will have a speedy recoverty.

Update: Gallagher is out for the season with a broken jaw and Niskonen has received a one game suspension. Rumour has it that Lee is being investigated but we won’t hold our collective breath on that one.