Nearly 30,000 Habs fans sign petition demanding NHL referee Chris Lee be fired

My advice: Stay off social media today if you're Chris Lee.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 2 years ago
Nearly 30,000 Habs fans sign petition demanding NHL referee Chris Lee be fired
Zuma Press

It's not exactly a secret that officiating has been a hot button issue in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season. In particular the refereeing in the semi-final matchup between the Montreal Canadiens and the Vegas Golden Knights has been abysmal and most fans seem to agree that veteran official Chris Lee is mostly to blame. In fact, nearly 30,000 Canadiens fans have signed an online petition calling for Lee to be fired by the NHL.

From CTV Montreal:

“In recent years, we have already noticed Chris Lee for the wrong reasons in the hockey world,” wrote petition author Olivier Tetreault. “In the last two games... we have seen so many occasions Chris Lee's inability to do his referee work in the NHL.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, 27,070 people have agreed with Tetreault.
“This ref has no place in the NHL he is a disgrace to the game,” wrote one commenter.
“His incompetence is so obvious, if (NHL Commissioner Gary) Bettman doesn't see this then he is also part of the problem,” wrote another.

Much of the controversy comes from Lee's officiating in Game 4 of the series in which Lee literally "looked the other way" on several non-calls that benefited the Golden Knights.

The referees for Game 6 tomorrow night in Montreal have not been chosen, but it's probably safe to say that Lee will be watching the game from his couch at home. If the NHL were to schedule Lee to officiate Game 6, it would set off an absolute powder keg of controversy. And that's saying nothing about the actual outcome of the game. If he were to ref and blow another call that leads to a Vegas win it would truly be a travesty and I think you'd have a lot of people correctly calling out the NHL. In short, the NHL can't put itself in that position.

I can't reasonably say whether or not Lee is fit to continue his job as an NHL referee, but I can definitively say that he should 100% NOT be officiating any games involving the Canadiens anytime soon. It's simply too sensitive of a situation right now and the NHL would be wise to avoid the situation entirely by leaving Lee at home on the couch.

Source: CTV Montreal