(In which Ryan Lambert takes a look at some of the biggest issues and stories in the NHL, and counts them down.)

7 – Officiating

We’ve known for a long, long time that the refereeing in the NHL leaves a lot to be desired. Part of that is the rulebook, which is weirdly vague in too many spots, but which simultaneously leaves way too much leeway for dumb stuff to happen.

Take for example, oh I don’t know, the goal Nashville didn’t score in Game 6. Look what happened on that play. Happens all the time. There’s a shot from a low angle, and it looks like Matt Murray has it. Referee Kevin Pollock straight-up stops skating, because it’s a judgment call and Murray’s a good goalie and all that. But because Pollock stopped skating, he didn’t see the puck trickle loose. It was awful positioning and a no-effort play from the ref.

But the league also has the ability to review plays of exactly this type — on the basis that a ref may have blown a whistle despite a “continuous play” — but didn’t use it. Why? My theory, unfounded by probably right, is that the league didn’t want to undermine one of its officials in so public a setting. That kind of thing happens with shocking regularity.

And you can’t say the refs didn’t know they blew it, because they gave the Preds four power plays — including a kinda-long 5-on-3 — to the Penguins’ zero. Didn’t help because the Nashville power play was horrible for most of the playoffs. It’s like that time several years ago the umpire blew an out call at first base in the ninth inning of a perfect game: The refs “kicked the [crap]” out of this one, and all the apologizing or make-up calls in the world don’t make up for the what-ifs that one dumb, wrong whistle.

Unfortunately there’s no real way to fix the issue. The “ref blows the play dead when he can’t see the puck” call is one where creating any wiggle room is tricky. Make it a two-whistle system? That’s weird. Would be tough to make work. Let play continue even after a goalie has it covered? That’s bad. Will get someone killed.

So the NHL’s official stance on this kind of has to be: “It sucks, but here we are.” Same as it ever was. Classic NHL.

6 – Copycats

One of the best things in the wake of any Stanley Cup Final that always makes me laugh is the 29 — soon-to-be-30 — other teams’ various media members asking something along the lines of, “How close is our team to doing this?”

The reason it’s so funny is you get a lot of deluded-ass people who clearly have no idea what teams actually need, even if they cover them every day. Take the Bruins as an example. I read something yesterday that they need a few defensemen, a good coach, a backup goalie, and Kris Versteeg, and they’re in the conversation. Like, come on. Tuukka Rask is gonna be 30 next year. Patrice Bergeron 32. David Krejci 31. Zdeno Chara 40. Look at their contracts. Look at their coach. Look at their GM. In what universe is this team a few minor roster tweaks away from being Cup-competitive?

The sad reality is that there are probably like four teams in the league that are truly elite, and maybe four or five more that can get deep in the playoffs if a few bounces go their way. That’s almost a third of the league, fair enough. Then another third or so is in decline (this includes the Bruins), a little less than that are in the middle of rebuilds. A few are mired in the basement for other reasons, mostly “dumb management.”

People can’t to evaluate their teams properly, or can’t objectively. I get that, it’s fine. But the number of teams that are “close” to replicating the Penguins can be counted on one hand. That’s the reality.

5 – Hiding Subban

Honestly the whole kerfuffle about PK Subban not talking before Game 6 is the dumbest thing in the world. Honestly, who cares? No one was going to ask him any sort of question that was going to illuminate literally anything we didn’t already know about Game 6 and the battle the Preds were facing and all that.

And it’s not like he begged out. Subban, to his credit, never saw an interview he didn’t want to give. It wasn’t a distraction. It didn’t matter. Who cares. Shut up.

4 – The Top 100 players

I love love love love love that even after winning his second straight Stanley Cup, Jim Rutherford was still like, “Can you [expletive]ing believe Evgeni Malkin isn’t one of the top 100 players in NHL history?”

Story continues