When Burrows exposed Auger he exposed all the refs, they all got tarnished by association and inference. That's why they are pissed at Burrows and probably also Auger. They got rid of Auger.
It still goes back to Auger, if he had a problem with Burrows diving all he had to do was not call the penalties committed against Burrows if there was doubt as to Burrows embellishing. Inventing calls against Burrows was not acceptable. It makes it look like the refs are fixing the outcome.
Let me be clear that I am just expressing a different point of view, one that I think is pretty valid but not one that I support.
Auger was burned by Burrows, he was sucked in on a dive and made a bad call that resulted in an automatic suspension that was later rescinded by the league because they deemed that he made a bad call (as a result of him believing Burrow's dive). You suggest he get even by not giving Burrows the benefit of the doubt any more.
That's like me catching you keying my car and responding by not talking to you anymore...I'm a lot more likely to go punch you in the face which is how Auger reacted by making phantom calls against Burrows the next game. Things like that happen all the time, both in hockey and in real life.
If at that point, Burrows realizes that he was caught and takes his punishment, nothing more comes of it and it probably dies. Instead, Burrows goes and cries to the media about it. It makes a big stink and the NHL has to react. As a result, someone has lost their career, Auger.
The part where people lose me is this. They always seem to brush of the Burrows dive with "That happens all the time." then they think that Auger was completely in the wrong for making questionable calls against Burrows to make up for it. Look at the Henrik penalty the other night, refs also make make-up calls all the time. The only irregular thing that happened was that a player went to the media with details about things that were happening on the ice between themselves and an official. The end result was an official lost their job and the Canucks don't seem to get many breaks with the refs...a bad trade-off for everybody.
That is not a point of view that is an agenda. Everyone has a point of view, you can not help it. Auger had an agenda the night he told Burrows he was going to get him and he did. What he did was corrupt and he was punished for it. Really when he did this he no longer had integrity and had to be dismissed. He cost Vancouver a game, fans of fair entertainment, perhaps cost bettors thousands of dollars, for what? Auger did not just punish Burrows he rigged a game with his calls. If his co-workers should have learnt anything from this event it would be to not be corrupt. If they are in fact actively discriminating against the Canucks they to are corrupt and should not have been hired in the first place. Are you actually arguing in favour of corruption or that corruption is unavoidable so the Canucks should factor this into their actions going forward.
If my friend went to jail for defrauding a bank, i would not hold a grudge with the bank for charging him.
Mclean also showed his opinion was for sale to the NHL on this occasion. The number of media that came to Auger aid, was not to protect the ref, it was to protect the league's image. Mclean basically said Burrows was a liar, cheater and faker whose word could not be trusted.
It's a point of view that caused him to go into a game with an agenda.
If anything, for your example, Burrows defrauded Auger by diving then Auger charged him for it the next game by giving him two penalties...as a result, Burrows then walked into the bank and lit it on fire so it could no longer operate as a bank.
I wasn't a fan of Auger or what he did, and I hate Ron McLean who is a host who pretends he's an analyst however the guys who can't see that Burrows is at least partially at fault for the whole incident (potentially more at fault than anybody else) is kidding themselves.
Also, McLean isn't necessarily for sale to the NHL, the guy is a high level referee who is in tune with the referee network. You can bet the chatter on that network and what they were saying played a huge role in what he was saying on air and what he says to other referees and media personalities off air.