I haven’t been able to catch all of the games so far from the Stanley Cup final, but the vibe I’ve been getting from the Internet is that the officiating has been a tire fire of a mess. 

I’ve been officiating minor hockey for a long time so I’ve always had a soft spot for NHL referees and the criticism that’s thrown at them on the Internet. A great follow on Twitter is retired NHL official Kerry Fraser. He gives a lot of input online about certain situations on the ice from an officials perspective, and last night during game four he was tweeting up a storm.

The biggest controversy coming from Vegas fans was the reverse hit ‘elbow’ that Oshie delivered on Miller that led directly to a Caps goal. You can watch the hit below.

This caused a pretty big commotion on Twitter and I can only imagine how many people were asking Kerry Fraser about it. Fraser took the time to answer the questions and we got some really good insight out of it.

So that answers our questions on whether or not the play was interference. In the NHL it is considered a battle for the puck as long as it’s within an appropriate time from when the puck gets passed off. And as far as the elbow to the head that the fans wanted to be called? Well, take a look at these screenshots. Of course, it’s tough to tell through still images of the hit, AND it’s even tough to tell at full speed, but a missed call like this can be certainly understandable.

You be the judge. But if Miller actually broke his jaw from this play, my guess is that it’s from Oshie’s helmet.

After Miller’s jaw injury, the Golden Knights obviously looked for some revenge on Oshie. This cross-check from behind happened near the end of the game in the corner. The game turned pretty ugly at the end and it was obvious Vegas was out trying to send a message for game five.

Thankfully McNabb got a cross-checking minor for this, but there a lot of keyboard warriors online claiming he should get suspended. Kerry’s thoughts on it? See below.

Vegas fans wanted a penalty when it appeared that Ryan Reaves got high sticked in the face and dropped like a fly. Kerry gave his response and what he felt the refs saw and thought of when the play happened. It was later proven that Reaves high-sticked himself, but I still find it interesting to hear Kerry’s opinion on it.

This is my favourite tweet of the night by far from Kerry Fraser. As hard as both teams are battling out there, the refs are battling too. They can only do so well with the circumstances they’re presented with, and last night was a high difficulty game for them. Kerry applauded the officiating last night and backed them up 100%.