[Jaybo]

People can argue back and forth about how much the refs impact on games but it's pretty undeniable that they do.

Sure, it's a fast game with lots happening in split seconds but it's clear that games are called differently whether it's regular season or post-season, what the score is, who the players involved are, at what point in the game it is, if one team has gotten more power plays and things need to be "evened out", who the home team is, who the ref is, which series it is, what player's "reputations" are, if teams are based in Canada or the US and on and on and on.

I can't even imagine watching a game where refs called it without any of these factors coming into consideration and simply did their best to call the most obvious penalties, as defined in the rule book, no matter who, what, where, when or why they happen.