Does referee Steve Kozari have a grudge with the Oilers?

Back on January 26th Connor McDavid had a goal disallowed against the Flames and then after scoring a beauty in the shootout this moment happened:

That referee was Steve Kozari.

Fast forward to last night’s game and this brutal call on Milan Lucic’s charging, definitely not charging penalty.

When the game was in the balance, the Oilers had stormed back to make a one-goal game of what looked like a blowout. The timing of the penalty and the mystifying call itself left people all over the internet calling out Kozari’s name as someone who has it in for the Oilers. Could it be the case that Connor’s frustration with a referee who blew a call late in the game has caused an NHL ref to seek out and make some bad calls against the Oilers specifically?

I took the time to go back and look at the four Oilers games Kozari has called since the infamous “Check Upstairs” game. Those games:

Saturday, February 10, 2018
at San Jose (6-4 loss)

Tuesday, February 20, 2018
vs Boston (3-2 loss)

Saturday, September 29, 2018
Preseason vs Calgary (6-4 win)

Tuesday, October 16, 2018
at Winnipeg (5-4 win)

The stats on the penalties for those game are

9 Oilers powerplays for

14 Oilers powerplays against

So statistically it looks like the Oilers are being called for and against at the rate they were last year (46%) as they are when Kozari is on the ice. But let’s dive deeper into the calls.

I took video clips of four of the calls from games that I could see against the Oilers, you be the judge.

The game against Calgary in the preseason was unavailable because of broadcasting issues. I don’t think there is much here you can really point to. I think his miss on the Lucic call was just that, a bad call.

What do you think? Does Steve Kozari have it out for the Oilers?