from Ken Campbell of The Hockey News,

“To be clear,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said prior to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final, “we have the best officials in the world.” Hours later, those same officials, who are supposedly the best in the world, put on a display of managing a hockey game that should leave everyone in the league embarrassed. Again.

The men who wear the striped shirts have been a major focal point of this post-season. And as Game 1 of the final devolved into an amateur rodeo, it was more of the same in the first game of the league’s biggest showcase. It was disgraceful. And while Bettman and the league talk about improving video replay, not once did he mention that perhaps there needs to be something done about the way the games are refereed. The more you watch this game, the more it becomes apparent that the league actually loves the chaos, the mayhem and the always coveted “bad blood” that this league thinks it needs to sell its product.

I actually don’t question Bettman when he says NHL officials are the best in the world. They are. They’re highly trained. They’re in great shape. They have a difficult job where they have to make crucial decisions in real time. The kind of garbage we witnessed in Game 1 is not because the referees are bad, but because they are directed by the league to officiate the games this way. And the bigger the game, the more deeply the whistle gets nestled into the pocket.

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Below, watch an example of what Campbell is writing about.