Los Angeles Kings fans are up in arms about the poor officiating on display against the Edmonton Oilers in their Game Five elimination, and not without reason.
There were a few questionable calls that even caught the attention of national commentators.
However, the official's worst moment came in the second period when they let play continue after David Rittich's helmet came off in the second period and play was not blown dead, leading to a Connor McDavid blast at a helmetless Rittich.
To quote LAKingsInsider Zach Dooley, that is negligent officiating.
With all of that being said, and the acknowledgment that the officiating was poor, this was just that, poor officiating.
Every team thinks the league is out to get them and there's a conspiracy to have calls go the other team's way. I even saw plenty of uses of the word "rigged" among Kings fans.
No, the NHL isn't rigging games against the Kings or telling refs to give more power plays to the Oilers so McDavid can have a better chance at winning a Cup. That isn't happening.
However, NHL referees are human beings and are affected by what's going on around them.
Does a loud building, like Rogers Place, exploding every time an Oilers player catches a borderline check or something that looks like a penalty, impact their decision? Of course it does.
There's also the unconscious bias towards better players or teams getting calls.
We see it all the time in sports and has been a big conversation in soccer surrounding Manchester City and their tactical fouling.
Essentially, better players or teams are sometimes given the benefit of the doubt on 50/50 calls because you assume they'd be on the right side of things.
When McDavid, the best skater in the world, goes down in a heap with a Kings player draped over him and you didn't get a good look at it, your first thought might be a penalty and refs don't get replays.
Or to use an example from Game Five, when Pierre-Luc Dubois comes across Leon Draisaitl's upper body and knocks him down, at full speed, the better player sometimes gets the benefit of the doubt.
None of this is to say that's right and how it should be, but again, refs are human and have an incredibly difficult job.
They weren't mandated by the league to make sure Edmonton and McDavid win. But referees are imperfect and have bad games just like players do and we saw a bad game from them in Game Five.
And while the Kings were often on the wrong end of those bad calls, likely for some of the aforementioned reasons, it wasn't all one-way traffic.
The Kings' one power play came on a blown call after Corey Perry blew a tire and fell into Mikey Anderson.
The poor officiating in Game Five was just that, poor officiating, there's nothing more to it.