What the referee told Brendan Gallagher on the ice is sparking major backlash
Brendan Gallagher and Martin St-Louis watched one penalty call turn into the loudest Canadiens talking point of the night.
It started with Arber Xhekaj getting a 2-minute minor in Tampa after dropping Max Crozier near the crease during a scramble around the puck. That call lit up Montreal almost right away.
A big chunk of the reaction came from fans who felt the whistle arrived fast once Xhekaj got involved. One post captured the mood in blunt terms:
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That frustration had context.
Crozier was also the player many fans still linked to the dangerous hit on Juraj Slafkovsky earlier in the series at the Bell Centre.
Another reaction pushed the point even harder:
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Then came the part that really grabbed attention. The referee turned to Gallagher and explained why the call stood, and that explanation quickly became the story.
The explanation only made the debate louder between Brendan Gallagher and the on ice official in Game 6
According to Renaud Lavoie on TVA Sports, the referee told Gallagher that Xhekaj never played the puck.
He also said the move on Crozier was completely illegal.
The official added one more point: it happened after the whistle.
Three reasons, all stacked against Xhekaj on one sequence that many fans never saw as an obvious penalty in real time.
That’s why this didn’t fade once the game ended.
The explanation itself became fuel for a wider argument around how tightly Xhekaj is being handled in this series.
Montreal still won the game 3-2 and moved ahead 3-2 in the series.
Even with the win, this was the kind of call that sticks in a locker room before the next puck drop.
Game 6 at the Bell Centre now carries more edge because of it.
If the standard stays this tight around Xhekaj and those net-front scrums, every extra shove is going to get dissected.
That’s where Gallagher matters in this story.
When the alternate captain is the player getting the explanation on the ice, the moment carries more weight than a routine penalty announcement.
The Canadiens got the result they needed.
Still, the real fallout from this play is the feeling that one whistle may have set the tone for everything fans will watch in Game 6.
| POLL | ||
MAI 2 | 762 ANSWERS What the referee told Brendan Gallagher on the ice is sparking major backlash Do you think Arber Xhekaj is being targeted by NHL referees ? | ||
| Yes | 577 | 75.7 % |
| No | 185 | 24.3 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
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HIER
16 MAI 2026
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| B | P | PTS | ||
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | 4 | 5 | |
| Tage Thompson | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Jack Quinn | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Zach Benson | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jake Evans | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Ivan Demidov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Konsta Helenius | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Zach Metsa | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Arber Xhekaj | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Bowen Byram | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Michael Matheson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ryan McLeod | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Norris | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | - | - | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | - | - | |
| STATS COMPLÈTES | ||||