Avalanche captain extremely critical officials in post-game comments; fine coming?

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Sam Hutch
March 11, 2022 (11:14)

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The National Hockey League's standard of officiating has generally been pretty good over the years. Still, this season, it looks like they have taken a step (or two) back in both credibility and their ability to call a game at the highest level by the rulebook.

This was most evident last night when the officiating (or lack thereof) directly played a role in the outcome of the Colorado Avalanche/Carolina Hurricanes game, a game that Colorado lost 2-0. A usually mild-mannered Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog sounded off in his post-game comments per Peter Baugh of the Athletic

Landeskog started his hot button post-game presser by saying he'd never seen any officiating like this.

In 11 years, I've never sat and talked about referees in a press conference

The Avs captain then complimented both of the officials for their work tonight... for the first 50 minutes of the game; after that, he was less than complimentary.

They called a high stick on Naz (Nazem Kadri) on (Nino) Niederreiter, which might have been a high stick, but Niederreiter falls easy; they're arguing it's still a high stick. Fair enough. With 5:50 left on the clock, Niederreiter is hooking Naz up the boards. The puck turns over, and we go the other way; they score. We're arguing it's a hook. They're saying Naz is flopping; we're arguing it's still a hook. Just like they were before

Landeskog says that in a playoff-type game, this can't happen.

It's unfortunate because that's a playoff (type) game tonight.

Nazem Kadri has a history of suspensions, yes, but does that mean he should be officiated differently than other players? Especially when the Avs use the same logic as the refs? I don't think that's right.

Opinion: The standard of officiating this season has been downright deplorable. The highest level of hockey is being watered down because the officials are not being held accountable. If the NHL wants the on-ice product to improve, it has to start with the officiating being held to a higher standard and holding the officials accountable for how and what they choose to call.

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Will Landeskog be slapped with a $25K fine for bashing the officials publicly?
For sure	71	34.5 %
Nah, he did it the right way	71	34.5 %
They had it coming to them	64	31.1 %
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