Rempe definitely getting hit with the reputation calls in this series. I know he’s public enemy number one here, but Wilson gets these a lot in the playoffs too. You’ll find that modern officiating crews try to “send a message” or set a tone early in games by nicking these guys for ticky tack stuff. It goes with the territory, TW43 hasn’t had one yet (shocking) but maybe that’s because they saw Rempe as more of a feisty target being young and in his first series.
Officiating in this league is rife with dumb game management like this. The evening of calls, the make up calls, the sending a message penalties. I just wish they’d call it straight. I can live with the idea that sometimes they make mistakes, it never feels like a makeup call actually fixes that, I’d just prefer some transparency and admitting after the game when they bungled a call.
I agree I wish they called it straight. I thought the Panarin hit was borderline, but it's clear they lean in favor of no-call for star scoring players, and lean in favor of calling ticky-tacky stuff with guys like Rempe.
It is what it is. I do think that overall, both sides of every game deal with unpredictable officiating so it evens out.
At the end of the day, you have to be good at PP, PK, and even strength to make it deep into the playoffs with how unpredictable officiating is in the league. At least it's better than NFL and NBA officiating.
Rangers sweep. This Caps team is a shell of what it once was with Backstrom and Kuznetsov. Nobody can get Ovy the puck and if he has 0 shots, Washington has no chance.
As a Rangers fan, I would be delighted with a sweep, but I wouldn't go so far as saying that Washington has no chance of winning a single close game of this series. They almost forced an OT last night. And once that happens, it's a coin flip. They'll likely play better at Capital One arena in front of their own fans too. If I'm not mistaken, their home record was way better than their away record.
