The NHL has yet to formally acknowledge any sort of wrongdoing by its officials in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final, but the moves the league has made since then certainly seems to acknowledge mistakes were made.
After alternating between officiating crews through the first six games, the NHL announced earlier this week that the crew headlined by referees Gord Dwyer and Chris Rooney will officiate Game 7 on Wednesday night between the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues. In doing so, the NHL is essentially benching the crew led by Kelly Sutherland and Steve Kozari.
The Sutherland/Kozari crew was at the helm for Game 5 and missed a few controversial calls. The apparent missed trip that led to the Blues’ game-winning goal got most of the press, but the NHL’s decision to suspend St. Louis forward Ivan Barbashev for his high hit on Marcus Johansson was telling after the play went uncalled during the game.
Here are the two teams’ records with the respective referees officiating their games this spring, per ScoutingtheRefs.com:
St. Louis
With Dwyer: 4-2
With Rooney: 6-1
Boston
With Dwyer: 4-2
With Rooney: 3-3
So, pretty split. For Bruins fans who might be concerned about the Blues’ 6-1 record with Rooney, consider this from Scouting the Refs:
Team records with tonight's refs (since '17):#STLBlues: 9-15 (38%)#NHLBruins: 11-8 (58%)https://t.co/QcM7qBxmJ9#STLvsBOS #STL #BOS
— Scouting The Refs (@ScoutingTheRefs) June 12, 2019
Will any of this matter regardless? Let’s hope not.
