The Edmonton Oilers have a .500 record and a lot of those games can be attributed to bad officiating.
There have been a lot of issues surrounding the Edmonton Oilers so far this season. Just look at their record (21-21-3), and you can see why they have failed any expectations they had before pre-season. The fact of the matter is that nothing has gone their way and there have been a lot of factors that have hurt their playoff chances.
One major part would have to be injuries, and the other would be the uncertainty surrounding the future of this franchise. Nobody knows what will happen in the offseason, if Peter Chiarelli will be let go or if Ken Hitchcock will be retained for another season.
But the one major issue on the ice that has been a thorn on the side of the Edmonton Oilers are the NHL Officials. The refereeing of their games have been atrocious, and it’s been like that for many years. It’s hard to play a conspiracy theorist, but it seems like the NHL don’t seem to care for the Edmonton Oilers at all. There are times they will rescind a goal that was scored or penalize a hit that was clean (which is mind-boggling).
The worst part of all this is how players like Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Leon Draisaitl are getting illegally hit and slashed on a daily basis and they barely get the benefit of the doubt. It’s those types of non-calls that are affecting the league, not just the Edmonton Oilers.
But the issue with the Oilers is that those three guys are the only offensive threats for the team. If the officials aren’t protecting them, it puts the Oilers behind the 8-ball and will most likely lose that game as a result. The fact is that it needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.
Bad officiating cost the Edmonton Oilers their last game against the Arizona Coyotes. Let’s hope they can rise against that versus the Buffalo Sabres tonight.