Connor McDavid Gave A Referee Some Well-Deserved "Abuse" After Making Sure An Abysmal Goaltender Interference Call Didn't Cost His Team Any Points

The disallowed goal:

THE NHL IS A JOKE.

THIS LEAGUE IS A FARCE.

- ND pic.twitter.com/6X0w1KG5jW

— OilersNation.com (@OilersNation) January 26, 2018

The comeuppance:

As smooth as @cmcdavid97 can be. Those mitts though. □ pic.twitter.com/Xz74muFy2z

— NHL (@NHL) January 26, 2018

pic.twitter.com/b6txiGrJht

— Jeanshorts (@JSBMjeanshorts) January 26, 2018

Connor McDavid received an Abuse of Officials penalty for his "Go upstairs" motion after his shootout goal.
There will be no supplementary discipline. Just a 10-minute misconduct.

— Mark Spector (@SportsnetSpec) January 26, 2018

Yes...::insert maniacal laugh::...yesssssss. It's...it's happening! I know I can't put any inaction of stubbornness past the league that only loves sticking to it's backwards facing guns more than blatantly contradicting it's incessant plea for more scoring. However, if there were - and I emphasize if - something that could get the NHL to look in the mirror, it would have to be drawing the insult-driven ire of its golden boys. I mean, in the same calendar week both Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid were made so upset by laughably atrocious calls that they instinctually mocked the very same officials that generally give players of their ilk the benefit of the doubt when they were able to overcome them? It appears as though even fate is...wait for it...challenging the NHL's video replay process, because we are one Sidney Crosby tantrum-turned-taunt away from a hat trick of superstar satire.

Granted, not even eliciting a temper from the game's most transcendent talents is guaranteed to provide us a solution to a system so blatantly broken that it makes the NFL look like they have completed the process of catching on to the inherent flaws of over-analyzation. That said, if we are still trying to define both offsides and goaltender interference a year from now, we can look back on this day as the one where literally everything was done to make sure the NHL knew full-well just how detrimental their decision making has been to their own sport.

Also, that sarcastic jeer drawing an 'Abuse Of Official' call is undeniable evidence of how uncertain referees have become of themselves. Only someone that knows exactly how fair a criticism is would be that ridiculously sensitive towards it. The jokes that sting the most are those that are based on truth. I know that fact to be relevant here, because if "check upstairs" is truly worthy of a 10-minute misconduct - albeit one that won't have to be served - than 90% of the things said to referees during the course of a game are comparatively deserving of a Larry Nassar-level prison sentence. 

Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews, the NHL's two highest-profile talents in their age group, have both had a goal taken away from their teams via goalie interference calls this week, only for both of them to score shortly after AND follow that up with a poke at the referees pic.twitter.com/rCyR0tSP4f

— Jeff Veillette (@JeffVeillette) January 26, 2018