Rewind: Four officials miss a blatant, and bloody, high stick on Corey Perry.

Another embarrassment courtesy of the NHL's officials.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 2 years ago
Rewind: Four officials miss a blatant, and bloody, high stick on Corey Perry.

The officiating in the National Hockey League has been a highly controversial topic for as long as anyone still alive can remember but, with the advent of better technology as well as the introduction of social media, it has come under a level of scrutiny unlike ever before. That has unfortunately not proven to be a good thing for the National Hockey League as their on ice officials routinely embarrass themselves with terrible calls, or terrible non calls, and unfortunately Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Semifinal between the Las Vegas Golden Knights and Montreal Canadiens was no exception.

The Canadiens and Golden Knights were in sudden death overtime with the score tied at 2 - 2 when Golden Knights forward Jonathan Marchessault high sticked Canadiens veteran Corey Perry right in the face. I call it a high stick because that is what the penalty should have been, but it was more of a hack to the face than a high stick, and the damage it did to Perry's face was evidence of that fact. The Canadiens forward was immediately a bloody mess following the incident, with blood streaming down the side of his damaged nose almost instantly after Marchessault made contact with his face. Here's a replay of the high stick:

Somehow the blatant foul, which occurred right next to the play and the puck, was missed by all 4 of the NHL's officials who could have called it a penalty. The look of sheer disbelief on Perry's face as he left the ice with blood leaking down onto the playing surface told us exactly what he thought of the non call, and the reaction from angry fans on social media was something to behold. To make matters even worse a timeout was called in the game in order to allow for blood to be scraped off the ice, yet another reminder of the ineptitude of the NHL's officials.


It would be the Canadiens who would get the last laugh however, eventually winning the game in overtime even without Perry available to them due to his injury. In something of a fitting final chapter to this incident however, a bloody Corey Perry returned from the locker room after the win to celebrate with his teammates in spite of the fact that his face was still a complete mess.


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