Buffalo Sabers captain Kyle Okposo had a lot to say about the performance of the referees during his team’s 3-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
And for good reason, the decision to give a major penalty and a game misconduct to attacker Eric Robinson for having given CH defender Justin Barron a hard time changed the outcome of the match.
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Having sanctioned Robinson in this way is not necessarily what upset Okposo. That being said, a similar incident occurred between the Minnesota Wild and the Edmonton Oilers on Friday, when Evander Kane went to check Jonas Brodin from behind.
The Oilers forward was not roughed up by the officials during the sequence, and that’s what bothered the Sabers forward.
“I don’t understand how Evander Kane wasn’t punished yesterday [vendredi] and for there to be a five-minute mark on that, it doesn’t make sense,” Okposo told reporters after the match against the Habs. It’s exactly the same play and there is an injury in the sequence. I just don’t like consistency. It’s exactly the same game, where there is one with zero penalty minutes, and another with five.”
As a reminder, Jayden Struble (four against four) and Nick Suzuki took advantage of this penalty to give Martin St-Louis’ men a 2-0 lead. The Buffalo club forced overtime, thanks to two goals in the third period, but had to admit defeat in the shootout.