Bad Officiating: More than just a bad excuse

It was only appropriate to wait a few days for this post, some of the emotion of the 3-2 loss to Colorado has burned out and we're now more focused on facing Alexei Kovalev and the Senators. But it's important to address the biggest issue of discussion following Thursday's game

Complaining about officiating issues goes beyond trying to justify a loss
I feel I made this somewhat clear in my image following the game, showing how the officials failed to call Montreal for having seven players on the ice, but this needs reiterating.
Regardless of who wins or loses, bad officiating hurts the game. The events on ice should be focused on the players and their events, not the referees determined to make this event more of a dramafest based on their interactions with the game. If I wanted a soap opera I would have turned my TV on several hours earlier or gone on LiveJournal.

Be it last nigth's broken-stick agression, or a puck in the netting, the refs and linesmens should be expected to be both professional and competent. We should expect excellence from -everyone- on the ice, members of the Toronto Maple Leafs notwithstanding; but even they had perhaps one of the worst botched calls in history effecting them. While officiating will always be subjective, there should be at very least some form of reprimanding for officials following clearly mis-called games.

Maybe we should take a page out of pro football's book and implement a challenge system.