I'm quoting you just for simplicity's sake since my response is to you but also many posters in this thread who seemingly have missed the point of the article altogether.
The article wasn't a commentary specifically on this series. Yes, he used McDavid as the example and yes, he made a brief mention of penalties that weren't called on the Oilers as well, but that's not the issue being brought up.
He's saying that the NHL does a terrible job of marketing its stars and letting them be the stars the league needs to be able to market them. Neutrals and casual fans don't want to tune into to see the best players in the league get tackled and grabbed.
He's not blaming the Jets or calling them cheaters - his article says this goes all the way back to Mario Lemieux, and it's one of the reasons Mario retired when he did. He said on Twitter its not to blame the Jets either; they know how the game is called in the playoffs and you might as well play the way the game is played. Hate the game, not the player.
I agree with him, for the most part. In what world does probably the fastest player in the league, definitely the most skilled player in the league, go 8 playoff games drawing no penalties? There wasn't an instance of being held a little bit, maybe tripped up, maybe interfered with? Of course there was. The reffing in the NHL is so terrified of influencing the game that they influence it by NOT calling these things. In game 4, the refs know that a Jets goal sends the Oilers home, so they don't want to call the PP that does that. They don't want to appear one-sided so they don't call anything against the Jets either. This is all under the guise of "letting them play", when in fact, they AREN'T letting them play because they can't do anything.
The NBA does this too, but in the opposite direction. Watch playoff games - for the most part, the stars get the calls. LeBron gets the benefit of the doubt, Durant gets the benefit, etc etc. In fact, the only player I've watched that DOESN'T get the benefit of the doubt is Steph Curry. This makes the stars the centrepieces of the playoffs and you can more easily market it to a wider crowd. My issue with it is that they get away with so much that it encourages them to flop, but it also means that other teams are kept down by not having these players on their team.
This is getting attention here because it seems like more whining about how the Oilers aren't in the playoffs anymore, and it makes it seem like the Jets don't deserve to have won the series, but the Jets specifically planned to play the game like this, knowing there is less space in the playoffs and the refs barely call anything. If they get called a couple of times for clutching or slashes in game 1, the game plan adjusts completely.
Like it or not, the potential of McDavid vs Matthews in the playoffs is a HUGE draw for not only Canadian audiences but also in the US. While our goaltender is probably top 3 in the league, you don't tune in to watch a goalie make great saves. You tune in to watch a player make nice plays, the best in the world against another top 5-10 player in the league, West vs East, two historical franchises, all of that. The NHL needs to market its star players better, and they need to stop neutering them in the playoffs by not calling stuff because they don't want to influence the game.
TL;DR - Anyone thinking this is a hit piece against the Jets or just more whining by the media that the Oilers didn't win is completely missing the point.
