I don't believe in conspiracies, really, but I do believe in how "cascading incompetence" in reffing can destroy hockey games.
First, don't call anything, players get a feel for the flow and play accordingly. Then make one weak call, PP goal scored. "Ooops", so better make a weak call the other way. Then a series of weak calls both ways as compensation, and the players have no idea what they can and cannot get away with. No one can point to any one call that changed a game, but the cumulative effect is often removing the momentum from one team and both teams losing the flow -- becomes largely decided by the ref.
Not saying that's the case last night, not blaming the ref entirely, but for sure a contributor.
As much as I didn't like some of the big rule changes last year, as it got a bit silly at times the type of interference calls, but it was sure refreshing to see games called completely consistently. Virtually no missed calls. In the playoffs, we're now back to "old time reffing" ... the randomness of which always drove me crazy.
Hey, there's a fishing connection ... the randomness of whether or not the fish will bite, same gear, same location, same everything. Damn fish. At least there's no video replay in fishing, "yup, I bet he wishes he could have missed netting job back, let's see that again from a different angle..."