Oilers coach left speechless trying not to get fined for ref criticism

After another night of several missed calls against the Dallas Stars, Knoblauch was asked his thoughts on the referees and he was fully speechless for about ten seconds. Knoblauch seemed to say everything he could to criticize the referees while trying to avoid getting fined by the NHL.

Last night the Oilers had only two powerplay opportunities, and in game one the Stars only had one penalty for too many men. The referees do put whistles away in the playoffs, but the amount of calls the Stars are getting away with is becoming ridiculous. So far, Dallas has double the amount of powerplays than the Oilers in the series, and that's just not actually the case - the Stars are just getting away with more.

Not only that, but diving has become a consistent problem in this year's playoffs. The Oilers players themselves will sometimes try to sell a call, but it seems other teams are shamelessly diving like soccer players to get penalties. Darnell Nurse brushed Seguin's chest with his hand in front of the net, and Seguin went down hard to draw an interference penalty. It's a shameless dive, and tough to see the referees so easily fooled when so many other penalties go uncalled.

Coach Knoblauch was trying to convey a point of criticism against the officials without taking a fine, as is customary for most NHL coaches. However, if the embellishment and egregious non-calls continue, maybe even Ken Holland needs to step up and have a conversation with the NHL.