"This officiating crew is brutal", "Ref is useless": NHL fans criticize referees for Ryan Hartman's 'dirty and dangerous' play on Leon Draisaitl

The referees are facing criticism from NHL fans for not calling a penalty on Ryan Hartman's 'dirty and dangerous' play against Leon Draisaitl during the Edmonton Oilers' 5-3 win over the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday.

The incident occurred in the third period when Hartman took out Leon Draisaitl's feet near the boards, sending the Oilers star crashing to the ice. Replays showed a referee watching the play, but no penalty was called.

Fans took to social media to express their outrage over the non-call, with one tweeting:

"This officiating crew is brutal."

Another wrote:

"The ref is useless"

Here are some more fan reactions on X:

"Refs didn't call the slewfoot on McDavid last game. NHL doesn't protect its players, especially the stars. Brutal," one wrote.

"@nhl what the f**k ya'll got going on with the officiating man.. how has it gotten this bad??? Lets not even get into goaltender interference..," another wrote.

"Doesn’t get more blatant that this. Just when I thought the Kemp-McDavid was textbook this is even more. WOW" a user commented.

"And the ref right there looking at it . Maybe if they made the fines for shit like this higher than $5000 . Make it $50,000," another wrote.

Connor McDavid (two), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman and Vasliy Podkolzin scored for the Oilers, while Calvin Pickard made 31 saves. Meanwhile, Matt Boldy, Ryan Hartman and Marco Rossi scored for the Wild, while Filip Gustavsson had 31 saves in the loss.

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Leon Draisaitl and Edmonton Oilers overcome deficit to beat the Wild

Minnesota opened the scoring with Matt Boldy's power-play goal at 3:02 in the first period before Marco Rossi made it 2-0 on a another power-play goal at 16:11.

Zach Hyman scored 21 seconds later for the Oilers to cut the Wild's lead before Connor McDavid tied the game with a power play goal at the end of the first period.

"I think our guys like a challenge. Unfortunately, it's making me age a little quicker than I would like," said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch. "I'd like us to get up three early and just cruise to a nice lead or victory, but I think the guys dug in, and they can handle adversity.

"When things aren't going well, they don't pack it in. I absolutely love the character of this team."

The second period saw Ryan Hartman put the Wild back ahead, 3-2 ,at 4:09, but Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tied the game for Leon Draisaitl at 14:15 with Ty Emberson’s point shot.

In the third period, Vasily Podkolzin gave the Oilers a 4-3 lead at 1:28 before Leon Draisaitl's teammate, McDavid, added an insurance goal at 12:39 to secure victory for Edmonton.