Conference Finals : Vegas Golden Knights vs Montreal Canadiens

[Invictus]

“Stats won’t prove it one way or another” really was the statement that sold it for me.

Well I can't sit here and say in good conscious "OH but just look at these stats!" when I've manipulated so many data sets to paint a certain picture then turned around and used the same data set to paint the exact opposite. Manipulating numbers is fun
There's so much untracked data too that skews results as well.

Let's look at the Weber / Nosek coincidental minors for example. Both got penalties nothing biased here right? Well not so fast.
Nosek boarded Weber first. You call that and MTL is on the PP. As a professional ref you know with a high level of certainty a veteran like Weber will get his retaliation in if no penalty is called. So just don't call it and wait for the retaliation and get them both. Negating the PP for MTL (even Steven) and your bias is covered up.
You can counter this by saying Chris Lee was just keeping the whistle in his pocket (which I mean he was). But one can also counter that by saying well Habs have had the better PP (this seems weird to say) this series and Habs also have currently the longest penalty kill streak in NHL playoff history. So that again benefits Vegas.
It's just here say and the only one that really knows for sure is Chris Lee.
You say you barely watch games, but there is those of us that have been watching Habs games for years. And over these years you come to observe the more blatant outliers at a greater rate from a certain individual the bias is much more apparent then any single game can indicate.

[rataylor22]

Yes Chris Lee is the only ref who does that. Now I’m REALLY sold.

[Invictus]

Yes Chris Lee is the only ref who does that. Now I’m REALLY sold.

That's not even remotely close to what I said...

[2014olympicgold]

Poor reffing doesn't have a stat to prove a side.

Tonight's refs haven't been announced yet, which is interesting because you would think they'd know the refs by now for a game tonight considering it's a game that's going from Montreal to Vegas.

Who knows what type of reffing is going to show up tonight. Game 3 had poor officiating, which you'd think would make Game 4 well officiated but it got worse. So who knows, maybe the refs want to be out of the news for 2 days and call a good game.

Hopefully internally, the refs and the League have talked about how they are embarrassing the league and need to sharpen up.

[Invictus]

Kelly Sutherland and Eric Furlatt are scheduled to ref tonight is what I'm seeing.

[Feenom]

Kelly Sutherland and Eric Furlatt are scheduled to ref tonight is what I'm seeing.

Doesn't matter, might as well get Phil Helmuth to ref.

[rataylor22]

I think the Vegas healthy scratches should get to ref tonight, I’ve been informed it’s the same thing anyways.

[2014olympicgold]

I think the Vegas healthy scratches should get to ref tonight, I’ve been informed it’s the same thing anyways.

The way it's been talked about, they already have been.

[Invictus]

I think the Vegas healthy scratches should get to ref tonight, I’ve been informed it’s the same thing anyways.

Yes lets blow things out of proportion with a ridiculous comment.

Though it would be interesting to see players ref a game. Crosby + Malkin will be tonights refs!

EDIT: After thought:
I'm curious as to why not more players don't become officials after they retire (not necessarily NHL)

[Dennis]

Being the ref sucks. Even if you're absolutely perfect and fair you'll still be subject to someone's vitriol. I don't know why anyone would want to do it.

[kovalchuk17]

I cannot imagine how long it would have taken to compile those Chris Lee stats.

But anyways.... It doesn't show home vs away and there is no way to tell which of the 2 refs on the ice is calling that increase in penalties.

Just be happy you're in this spot Habs fans. Don't chalk it up to conspiracy.

it would not take too long to mine/scrape all that data if it is stored in a predictable and consistent way + sufficient computing power. i have no doubt the person that did this is a software engineer who does this for a living anyways.

you would mine all of the gamesheets from (probably) nhl.com and export it into something like excel and filtering by referee. then you just use a few summary and deviation formulas then boom you get those numbers above. checking for home/away absolutely could be done if he added a step early in the calculation process

[Invictus]

scoutingtherefs.com has ref stats, but I'm not sure if they have stats that in depth.

[tweetdrivr]

Looks like Fleury starts. Interesting move.

[2014olympicgold]

Looks like Fleury starts. Interesting move.

Very interesting. I guess they just wanted to give Fleury a mental break. And to be honest, he's played 15 of 17 games, that's a lot in the regular season so spot starting your very good backup makes sense.

[Invictus]

I was quite happy with them sticking to Lehner