After accomplishing the mission of winning at least one game in North Carolina, the Montreal Canadiens returned to the Bell Centre for game three on Monday night. It was a classic Carolina Hurricanes performance, dominating the shot total and forcing the Habs to be opportunistic as they battled their way to overtime. Unfortunately, once there, a well placed point shot handed the Habs their first consecutive losses of these playoffs, and a 2-1 deficit in the series.
Absolute joke officiating. pic.twitter.com/Cdt0iLAui4
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) May 26, 2026
Not long after this atrocious non-call, the officials blew a play dead for seemingly no reason other than the Habs having too many men on the ice. Then decided that they couldn’t call it. Their performance was completely baffling, and so during what is supposed to be a premier event – the Eastern Conference final. These are supposed to be some of the best officials the league has to offer. If this is truly the best the league can do, what a laughable state we’re in.
Let’s get this out of the way, since I know I’ll inevitably be accused of blaming the loss on the officials simply for writing about them. I don’t think they’re anywhere near the only reason the Habs couldn’t win game three. Frankly, being outshot 38-13 is generally a recipe for disaster regardless of what you get, or don’t get from the officials. My issue is more with respect to the integrity of the game itself than an assignment of blame for the series tally.
We simply don’t know what the result would be if they made the proper calls in overtime. Ignoring the obvious trip by Carolina precipitated them ignoring the obvious too-many-men infraction against Montreal. Maybe the Habs score on the first call, but their power play results to date in the series don’t give us concrete evidence that they would. Maybe they don’t, and then Carolina score on the too-many-men call.
Here’s the Sportsnet clip of William Carrier’s high elbow hit to the head of Lane Hutson https://t.co/p8qqRgxrHw pic.twitter.com/uVOz6HQTfo
— /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) May 26, 2026
Maybe nobody scores on anything, but they call the questionable hit on Hutson that preceded the game winner. What would hypothetically happen from there is completely up to the imagination. The only thing we can state with conviction is that the officiating crew made themselves look like fools by ignoring at least one obvious call, then having no choice but to ignore another to balance the scales of their own ineptitude. At bare minimum, that ineptitude leaves us with too many what-ifs.
And what about a standard? Jalen Chatfield and Kaiden Guhle both received minor penalties in regulation for what would be borderline interference even in a regular season game. How on earth can you justify calling a tight standard like that, sporadically, then deciding to throw the whistles in the garbage for overtime? How can any player or coach understand your standard of play if it morphs into something completely different every period? Where is the line? Do the officials even know where it is?
By picking and choosing their calls, and modifying their standard from period to period, if not from play to play, they open themselves and the entire game to questions. Questions we’ll never have answered since they’re never held to account. For many fans, those questions head straight towards the perception of bias. It’s hard to blame those fans for going there, but never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
I don’t think the refs robbed the Habs last night, but they definitely created enough what-ifs with their stupidity to be responsible themselves for any narratives to that effect.
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