After wrapping up a three-game road trip, the Montreal Canadiens were back at the Bell Centre to host one of the top teams in the league, the Minnesota Wild. With the visitors playing the second half of a back-to-back, the Habs were in full control of the game at five-on-five, and ultimately took a 4-3 win in regulation thanks to a thrilling Cole Caufield goal with 15 seconds left on the clock. It was a thrilling way for the home crowd to celebrate a win, notwithstanding the strange nature of needing such heroics despite being the better team for most of the game.
As we all know, sometimes controlling the game brings out the absolute worst kind of “game management” from the officials.
Lane Hutson got a tripping penalty for this… pic.twitter.com/E7ZbrR3IIt
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 21, 2026
This is one of the worst examples of a ref desperate to call something against one team that I’ve seen in some time. Lane Hutson does not touch Marcus Foligno, and is in fact several feet from him when he trips over his own feet. This call took the Habs off a power play of their own, and while it didn’t yield a goal for the Wild, it did take a significant opportunity away from the Habs near the end of the second period. Referee Eric Furlatt did go and apologize to Hutson at the beginning of the third period, but we have no word yet on whether he’ll face supplemental discipline (yeah, right), or if he issued an apology to the rest of the team for snatching away their power play over nothing.
But they weren’t done there, because the Habs remained well in control of five-on-five play, so they had some more game to manage.
Hartman trips Dobes.
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 21, 2026
I'll let you guess if there was a penalty call. pic.twitter.com/t01AKVIBKI
Some may consider this debatable as a penalty, but when you contrast it with the ghost call on Hutson, it stands to reason that these refs should be calling it. Immediately after that missed call, they again called Hutson for a hooking penalty that was sketchy at best, then called Mike Matheson for a (deserved) tripping penalty that gave the Wild a five-on-three power play. The wild would end up with a power play goal after Hutson’s penalty expired, tying the game despite the Habs having a massive edge in shots, possession time, and general control of the game.
Thankfully, the Habs didn’t let suspect officiating get to them. They didn’t play for overtime, either. One could understand if they decided to just park the bus, play conservative and secure the single point, given the fact they were up against some very Wild-friendly officiating. Instead, they went out and took what belonged to them. In the final minute, they sent their big dogs out to press for a late game-winner, and the aforementioned Caufield fired one of his patented lasers under the crossbar to get them the two points they deserved.
I’m cognizant of the fact that I’m one of the more vocal critics of officiating, sometimes to a fault. I see the comments, I read replies on Twitter, and I know there will be folks who say “they won, why are you complaining.” A game like that, win or lose, is precisely the reason why something like Andrew Berkshire’s deep dive into officiating is necessary. The league has a problem with officials trying to control game flows and outcomes under the guise of “game management.” There is a massive difference between getting strict against a team that is up 6-1 in a game, or in a violent contest – the actual spirit of game management – and making phantom calls against a team that is up by just one. If the league can get to a point where officials stop doing that, they might actually be able to see the game in front of them, instead of searching for calls to balance some strange scale they’re weighing in their heads.
That’s why it needs to be pointed out, loudly, and regardless of the score at the end of the game. Maybe one day it will change. Until then, the Habs have to keep doing exactly what they did on Tuesday, playing their game right through it.
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