‘Pure garbage’: Panthers fanbase rants about Skinner hold, say it proves refs biased against Florida

Florida fans and commentators are crying foul just now about the refereeing in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.

When I first heard the complaints I admit I was mystified, but there was clearly a storm out of Florida over an alleged holding infraction by Oilers forward Jeff Skinner.

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Panthers fans claimed the penalty was critical in the sequence leading up to Darnell Nurse’s goal, Edmonton’s critical second goal of the game to pull within one goal of Florida in the second period.

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The claim was that for 20 seconds Skinner held tight to the stick of Florida Panthers d-man Dmitry Kulikov, effectively eliminating Kuliov from the play, rendering him unable to help shut down the on-going Edmonton attack that resulted in Nurse’s goal.

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Of course, Edmonton fans have complained relentlessly about the refs in this series, with two plays in Game 2 standing out, Sam Bennett kicked away Mattias Ekholm’s stick in the lead up to Bennett’s early goal, and the refs missing and obvious and consequential too-many-men-on-the-ice call in overtime that game that might helped shut down a dangerous Oilers rush by Viktor Arvidsson. Then there was an NHL referee blocking John Klingberg and creating a consequential turnover in Game 3, kicking off a Panthers scoring sequence.

In Game 4, Oilers fans also questioned a missed hit-from-behind on d-man Evan Bouchard and a missed high stick on Troy Stecher in the lead up to Florida’s third goal of the game.

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Here’s what Florida fans and commentators had to say about the alleged Skinner hold on social media:

Bill Horosz of the On the Prowl: Florida Panthers Den podcast
Apparently if you an Oiler its okay to stick hold… 19,000 saw the Edmonton Oilers stick holding on the scoreboard and these two clowns didn’t call it. But they called the Panthers on several tacky calls last night one almost on the heels of another one. No bias. Pure garbage. Garage league refs.

Panthers podcaster Jacob Langsman of the Panther Pourri show
This Oilers goal brought to you by the most blatantly missed holding the stick that has ever been missed

Panthers fan Jacob Winans (in response to a post about the hit on Bouchard)
Funny I’ve yet to see a post from you about the very obvious holding the stick penalty directly leading to Nurse’s goal. Doesn’t fit your narrative huh?…  Unbelievable no call there. Kuli has his stick held for a solid 15 seconds lol.

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Panthers fan Aaron H. @Aholtz324
Jeff Skinner was holding Kulikov’s stick for a solid 20 seconds leading up to the Oilers second goal Absurd to not call that in a StanleyCup

Panthers fan Dylan @miamiguydylan
Refs miss the most obvious holding the stick penalty and then the oilers immediately score. I hate this… The refs can only call a “holding the stick” penalty on the Panthers. They’ve missed 3 on the Oilers. This is ridiculous

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Panther Pourri: A Florida Hockey Now Podcast @PantherPourri (on the Stetcher play)
Yes, we saw a million tweets about it from ‘neutral’ NHL media especially north of the border and absolute crickets on the Reinhart trip and Kulikov stick hold. Also this is just incidental, be honest with yourself. It doesn’t cause the goal… The Edmonton media and the ‘Objective media’ that is clearly cheering hard for Edmonton is not actually rising above officiating talk. They are complaining about a missed call that DIDN’T EVEN LEAD TO A GOAL and ignoring 2 that did…  It’s annoying how much crying there is when a call goes the panthers way but absolute crickets when one goes the oilers way. It’s fun to be the villain but makes listening to people talk about the series annoying at best.

Panthers fan Jerry Gallo Callo @nonsequitur2787
Their entire (Oilers) team has practiced these holds, and embellishment. Hockey is a team game, not a game where you play 2 players for 30 minutes per game, and rely solely on the power play. That’s why you can’t hate the Oilers enough… The media fawning over how great they are is really nauseating… Sorry for the rant, I just really hate the dirty plays and embellishment and media gaslighting as it relates to the Oilers.

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Panthers fan BKHockeyTalk @BKHockeyTalk
What was going on with Kulikov and skinner on the 2nd goal? Seems like Kulikov couldn’t use his stick for some reason. Any idea why?…  Jeff skinner nursing Kulikov’s stick like it’s his baby.

TJ Peterson of the Panther Pourri podcast
I think that you come away very disappointed that you let Darnell Nurse score a goal, Vasili Podkolzin score a goal, Jake Wallman score a goal. I think that it’s very fair to acknowledge that two of those three goals were the ones that were right after missed penalty calls. I think it is also fair to acknowledge that there was one pretty egregiously missed penalty on the Panthers when Verhaeghe boarded Evan Bouchard, who has proven himself to be a huge asshole in the series. And I really have no room to complain about a player being an asshole, so I’ll just let that lie there. But I did kind of enjoy it for that reason.

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My take

1. Having reviewed the play, three things stand out.

First, that Kulikov initiated things by wrapping his arm and stick in Skinner. This is often enough to get a penalty called against you in the regular season, but the ref let go this infraction.

Second, Skinner appeared to press Kulikov’s stick between his arm and body in the hopes of getting a call. Skinner also took a tumble in the lengthy sequence, which might have been a trip or a case of embellishment, Skinner trying to get a call from Kulikov’s obvious hook.

Third, that at no time in the sequence do we see Kulikov fight to free his stick, or drop his stick to signal to the refs that Skinner has a hold of it.

2. I take Kulikov’s lack of fight to win back his stick as the player either sensing he had an advantage in tieing up Skinner in this way or knowing he was in a vulnerable position to draw a penalty here and not wanting to make to big a deal of it, just keep his man tied up and hope for the best.

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3. It’s hard to imagine Skinner would get the only penalty here. It’s more probable that Kulikov would get the only penalty here. It’s possible both players would get a penalty.

But I think the ref made the right call in simply letting the players play through the issue, as they were both battling, simultaneously fouling one another but in a relatively minor way when it comes to Stanley Cup Final standards.

How do you see it? Do you think the the Panthers fans and commentators have a point? Or are they making much ado about nothing, and doing so in the face of blatant uncalled fouls by an ultra-aggressive and rule-bending Florida team on other plays?

At the Cult of Hockey

STAPLES ‘Oh God, that hurt’: Toronto Maple Leafs insider can’t bring himself to celebrate Oilers OT win

Staples: ‘Not the ref’s fault’: Florida Panthers country reacts to historic Stanley Cup Final collapse in Game 4

LEAVINS: Game grades in historic Oilers win

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