I think there was alot of direction given refs by the head office, WAS.
Before Bettman the ref union graded and dispatched the refs. That is why refs had "personalities"
Some were known for "letting the boys play"
Some for seemingly "wanting the spotlight"
Others had other tenancies but well known by players and teams who would adapt easily.
When Bettman was hired he crushed the ref union creating a reffing system just like the NBA had. A system where the top echelon were instructing the refs'. As a few NBA refs have stated they never said who they wanted to win but did give "alerts" on players. But the ref's that got it right got playoff games. One at least was tipping off bettors. I think there were another couple that stated the same but anonymously.
The refs are still at the beholding of the league, teams and upper offices. I think it was more a business decision than anything necessarily evil.
So many cups in Canada but Canada was already sold on the game, to make it bigger they needed to have US teams and big US markets win to spread the game out. Hence no Canadian teams winning, sure one every 5 or 6 years in the finals but Championship teams get the news in the US. And because of all that new US interest the game grew and Canadian franchise owners gained much in value without winning the cup. They needed to keep interest going though.
Now we have the "one Canadian team representing ALL Canadian teams" concept, something Bettman stated decades ago when he started with Toronto is Canada's team. Singular.
Now I state WAS, because I think with the partnership with legal gambling these instructions will evapourate because of the possiblilty that one of these mega sports books sues the league for "cheating"
Oddly enough allowing the sports betting is almost enough to clean up any possible conspiracies.
As far as Edmonton/Florida series, Edmonton was a big favourite to win the cup day 1, they stumbled but finished very strong.
I stated I thought Edmonton would win because they are more used to the long travel and goalie Bob's sweating out up to 10lbs of water. Combined with the dehydration of flying and his age it he was going to wilt as the games went on.
No conspiracy there. Although the 2 days between games does seem designed to favour Florida more. That travel and dehydration is likely one reason for Florida's initial successes, Edmonton was still suffering from their extensive travel of the previous series.
Every playoffs the games are more intense, the refs have to adapt to rougher games. They can't do regular "game management". There is a difference in the way games are called, as has been, as should/will be.
BTW I think the change only happened the last 18 months or so,
