NHL referees ruin one of the best moments of the season.

Sometimes I think to myself that fans of the National Hockey League can be a little hard on the officials who oversee the games at times, but then I see moments like this and those thoughts quickly evaporate.

On Sunday night, we were about to witness what could very well have been one of the most exciting moments of the season when Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman challenged Los Angeles Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper to meet him at center ice and drop the gloves.

The incident began when Bruins forward Marat Khusnutdinov went crashing into the Kings net, making contact with Kuemper in the process. Kuemper took issue with this and got a little rough with Khusnutdinov, earning himself a 2 minute minor for roughing in the process.

In spite of the fact that the officials had made the call however, Swayman had already taken issue with how his teammate was being manhandled by Kuemper and as a result decided to take matters into his own hands. Swayman skated right up to the red line where he signaled his challenge to Kuemper, a challenge that Kuemper seemed more than pleased to accept.

The Kings goaltender quickly made his way to center ice and even crossed over the center ice line to show his willingness to go toe to toe with Swayman, but unfortunately the NHL officials on the ice would ruin any hope we had of seeing the fight everyone seemed to be anticipating.

The fans in the building were blowing the roof off of the building in anticipation, I have no doubt that fans at home were feeling the same way, and even the broadcast crew expressed their disappointment at the officials.

"Why wouldn't they just let them go," they wondered aloud.

Unfortunately thanks to the officials we will all just have to wonder what could have been.