Not even a recap, more an angry rant.

I’ll get to a quick recap in a bit, but I feel this needs to be said.

The Utah Mammoth were a dominant force for more than 20 minutes against the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight. Unfortunately, once the penalty unit came out for Pittsburgh, the entire game shifted.

The Penalty Unit tonight was not in yellow and black, however, and not paid by the Pittsburgh Penguins organization. Graham Skilliter and Peter MacDougall are employed by the NHL to be referees in a professional league. They are both 10+ year veterans with not only tons of game experience, but each has been promoted to call games in the playoffs. They, presumably, know what the game of hockey is. They, presumably, know how to call a game and understand the rulebook.

3 minutes into the game, Karel Vejmelka came out of his crease while making a save. While on his pads, immobile, Avery Hayes hit the Utah netminder full on, with no intent to stop or even potentially avoid collision. The play was directly at the net area, and with all scoring chances, both referees had their eyes on the play. Vejmelka was completely obliterated on the ice, and the only penalty that was threatened to be assessed was on Mikhail Sergachev, who had bullied Hayes in the corner for his actions. A roughing wasn’t called on Sergachev, but the referee was in Sergachev’s face for most of the scrum.

With a little more than 14 minutes to play in the second period, Logan Cooley was on a rush. He split the defense, when Ryan Shea held Cooley and dragged him down to the ice. Cooley went into the goalposts, similarly to the play he had against Vancouver that knocked him out originally. There was no call on the play. The only place either referee could potentially be looking was at the breakaway.

Late in the game, less than 4 minutes to play, Logan Cooley not only takes a high stick to the face, but then is elbowed to the face by one Ryan Shea. There was no call. The linesman that dropped the puck was staring at the play. The referee at the goal line was looking directly at the play. Neither of them saw either infraction.

Three plays. Four intent to injure. No calls.

Missed calls in hockey games happen. A high sticking infraction against Scott Mayfield in the playoffs sticks out in my head, as his reaction to it (and not getting immediately back into the play) resulted in a goal against. But when you miss not one, not two, not three, but four massive penalties in a game – while calling ticky-tack calls against the other team, including a call that’s never made to give a 5 on 3 power play – there’s more there than just missed calls.

Instead of incompetence, which is clearly not something two experienced referees with playoff credentials have, they should be reviewed by the league for not only obviously terrible officiating, but also for placing wagers on games they officiate. Either the level of incompetence is so significant that referees in the league that have been active for more than 10 years each suddenly don’t know how to call a game, or there are outside influences that not only affect individual games, but leagues as a whole.

Either the league is completely incompetent suddenly, where referees are unable to call games, or they’re complicit in allowing questionable decisions to impact games based on what is best for their most important advertisers.

A massive influx of money into the leagues from sites like DraftKings, BetMGM, FanDuel and bet365 have fueled a lot of revenue growth for the league. How much? Nielsen Sports estimated in 2025 that legal betting would increase the total revenue of the NHL by 216 million dollars per year.

The NBA is the poster child of a league that’s gone to shit because of gambling. A huge scandal at the time, Tim Donaghy admitted to betting on games he officiated. This, mind you, was back in the day where you didn’t have gambling apps on your phone, where a bet couldn’t be placed at a moment’s notice. This was also in a day where the referee personally benefitted but the league as a whole tried to maintain a sense of decorum.

FIRST PERIOD:
Utah completely dominated the Penguins in the first 20 minutes. Despite Vejmelka being run by Avery, the Penguins couldn’t muster much against a Utah team that had them on lock. Utah held Pittsburgh to just 4 shots through the first 17 minutes, until a late barrage by the Penguins power play got them up to 8 shots for the period.

Dylan Guenther was a dynamo for Utah, with a stolen puck at the blue line, leading to a 5 hole laser that beat Skinner just 5 minutes into the game. Then, on Utah’s first power play, he found a loose puck that was nearly tipped in by JJ Peterka. The Penguins couldn’t clear the puck, as the attempt hit Guenther’s skate as he was crashing the net for, effectively an own goal.

SECOND PERIOD:
The second period was Utah shutting down the Penguins hard for 15 minutes. Then, a “roughing” call on Lawson Crouse – which was an arm push to the chest that happens almost literally 200 times by each player in each game – led to a power play. No big deal, Utah’s PK was solid.

Then Alexander Kerfoot, standing at the blue line, got run into by Rickard Rakell at full speed. Somehow, this was “interference” and the Penguins were given a 5 on 3 advantage. Naturally, they scored, which completely shifted the game. Until this point, Utah gave up 2 shots in the opening minute from the opening push. For 14 more minutes, not a damn thing for Pittsburgh was going their way.

Once that first goal went in, Utah panicked, giving up a second goal when Thomas Novak got a deflected puck and an open cage to aim at. Suddenly, a game where Utah had complete control for 35 minutes was a 2-2 tie thanks to a gift of life by the referees.

Pittsburgh had 5 shots that period. When I say dominated, Utah completely and utterly dominated the Penguins until that 5 on 3.

THIRD PERIOD:
Ian Cole “hooking” – which was quite literally a can-opener tripping, led to a 3-2 lead when the Utah PK fell apart again. Utah tied it up with a good goal by Cole to make up the error that led to the last Penguins goal, but Utah again couldn’t box out their man, giving up the game winner to Noel Acciari from a loose puck in the crease again.

THE GOOD/THE BAD

You saw all you needed to see in the first 1500 word essay.

Next up:

The NHL tries to find a way to screw the Mammoth some more in Dallas on Monday. Maybe we’ll get the same refs, too, to help drive home the point that the league is a disgrace.