Today, the Oilers had themselves a dominant 4-1 win over the powerhouse New Jersey Devils, extending their win streak to seven games. One massive element of their success today was the penalty kill, which was tested by Devils' superstar Hughes brothers diving to draw penalties.
The Oilers took four penalties in the game, and three of them were stick minors for tripping and hooking against the Hughes brothers, and each of them were sold by the player to get the call. At one point, coach Knoblauch's unfiltered reaction was caught re-watching a penalty.
Hilariously, Knoblauch can be seen cursing the call, seemingly dismissive of the validity of the penalty. Thankfully for him, the Oilers penalty kill was flawless, and killed all 4 of the Devils opportunities.
Usually, if a player starts to get a reputation for diving to get calls, the officials congregate to become more reluctant to call penalties against that player. Jack Hughes may be a superstar talent, but diving like this will only hurt his reputation league-wide.
