Controversial Call cost the game: Pettersson and Tocchet call out the officiating in their post-game interview

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Felip Gosselin
April 1, 2023 (11:00)

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The Canucks had the lead late in the game until a linesman chose to give the Flames one last chance to win it.

Elias Pettersson was battling for the puck, when Walker Duerh tried to lift his stick which led to Pettersson's stick hitting Duerh's helmet. None of the two referees caught the play, it was ultimately the linesman that winded up making the call. Per the rule book, the linesman can only blow the play for a penalty worth at least a double minor, which was not the case.

Here's the sequence that ended up causing the tying goal:

The rest is history, Flames got on the power play, tied the game up, and took the two points home when Tyler Toffoli tallied the OT winner. Looking at it this way, it's hard to believe that the NHL isn't rigged when a game-changing call like this one occurs. Especially when the Flames are battling for a playoff spot:

''Yeah very frustrating, I don't know what to say, I'm just pissed off. I don't wanna comment because I'll probably get fined, they did their best and they made a call I didn't agree with. They're stubborn and they said it was right, so I just gotta accept it."

Tocchet also offered his point of view on the call when he was asked if he'd been given a proper explanation on the call, especially since nobody had seen him this angry ever since he took the job:

'' I don't know, I haven't still got one. I've got to figure that one out. I'm still trying to figure that one out.''

Not only did the Officials fail to make the right call, but they weren't even able to give the proper explanation for it. Officiating has been horrendous this year and every time a coach took his anger to the media they ended up getting fined.

However, how do you expect it to improve when you aren't authorized to speak up about the mistakes? How would you have felt if that call had happened in a playoff game?