NHL accused of rigging games following blown call last night

In case you missed it last night, the New York Rangers and the Calgary Flames put on one Hell of a show. The two desperate teams were throwing everything they could at each other in a very fast paced and physical game.

It had been a chippy affair since the puck dropped, but things went to another level when Rangers forward Sammy Blais ROCKED Flames forward Milan Lucic with a neutral zone hit. Blais gets awfully close to nailing Lucic with a head shot and things go completely off the rails.

Check it out:

The play was reviewed for an illegal hit to the head, but Blais managed to get off scot free. In fact, Lucic earned himself the extra two minutes with an instigator penalty.

I get the impression that Lucic's reputation may have worked against him on this one because that looks a lot like a blindside hit to me. Thoughts?

Oh... and if you thought that was the biggest hit of the game... you've got another thing comin'.

Check out Rangers captain Jacob Trouba absolutely TRUCKING Flames forward Nazem Kadri with a monstrous hit.

KA-BOOOOOM!That might be the hit of the season!

Trouba was all over the ice last night and had absolutely no problem throwing his body around. This hit on Kadri was textbook defense on a player trying to cut to the middle with his head down. This is old school hockey at its best in my eyes. I love it.

What I don't like, however, is that Trouba has to immediately drop the mitts following a clean hit. He's challenged by Flames defenseman Chris Tanev almost immediately and, of course, he obliges but I don't feel like he should have to fight after delivering a clean hit. You know who agrees with me? Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant.

"It's a shame you have to do that every time you throw a hit," Gallant said following the game. "For me, the first one was a good, clean hockey hit. It wasn't a dangerous hit. You wouldn't think there would be retaliation to that, but there was, and that's fine."

"But the second one, he hit Kadri pretty hard," Gallant added. It looked like Kadri might have got hurt. I understand guys standing up for their teammates, but I think sometimes, it gets a little (bit of an) overreaction. Trouba's a big hitter; people know that."

As for Flames head coach Darryl Sutter, he didn't have a problem with either of the hits.

"They were all clean, good hits," was all Sutter would say following the 5-4 OT loss. 

Personally, I think that last night's game between the Rangers and the Flames has been the most entertaining game this season to date. It was a game that had pretty much everything going for it, even a little controversy.

Flames forward Andrew Mangiapane managed to tie the game up in the 3rd period in what, to me, looks like an obvious no-goal due to a kicking motion. Except... that's not how the NHL saw things. They somehow, someway called this a goal:

Suffice it to say that Rangers fans were NOT happy with the call and several fans online even called out the NHL for rigging things in the Flames' favor.

Certainly looks like a kick to me but... I wouldn't go so far as to say that the NHL rigged the game however. I mean... the Rangers won after all.