NHL Officials Miss Not One But Two Blatant Penalties On The Montreal Canadiens On Sunday

The Montreal Canadiens are fighting for their lives in the Stanley Cup Playoff race in the Eastern Conference, and on Sunday, they picked up a key 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers to get them one step closer to securing a Wild Card spot.

However, once again, NHL officiating reared its ugly head, as less than 24 hours after they were abused by a Colorado Avalanche superstar, they missed another two clear calls that could have cost Montreal two key points in their post-season race.

During the game, on two separate occasions, a stick was stolen directly from the hands of a Canadiens player, and right in front of the officials, for some reason, they decided to let it go not once, but twice.

It's not exactly clear why the officials overlooked this play, as it was a clear violation from the Florida Panthers players, and if the Canadiens hadn't overcome these missed calls and won the game anyway, there would certainly be much more uproar from the fanbase, the players and no doubt the coaching staff.

Ultimately, this was another incident in a long string of them from 2024/25 where the NHL officials showed major incompetence, missing calls that very clearly should have been made, and while this one didn't cost a team, it has happened countless times in recent years, and given the overall quality of the NHL product, Gary Bettman is risking ruining that reputation the longer he allows these officials to keep making mistakes.