Here is a very smart piece on officiating in the NHL playoffs and how important it is to stay out of the penalty box. And how important it is to capitalize on your opportunities with a man advantage or be efficient in the penalty kill. This article also offers a good analysis on the officials and who calls what.
I was not surprised to see that we had the worst efficiency rating in power plays to penalty kills in the league during the playoffs and that the two finalists, the Penguins and Red Wings, are ranked number 1 and number 2. When you see we are last in terms of differential - we had 13 less power plays than penalties against - it is a wonder that we went to game 7 in Round 2 in the playoffs, isn’t it? Twenty-six minutes of being purely short-handed is a lot of time in the playoffs.