{"id":463316,"date":"2026-02-19T12:20:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/463316\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T12:20:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:20:24","slug":"czechias-radim-rulik-livid-with-olympic-referees-afer-canada-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/463316\/","title":{"rendered":"Czechia’s Radim Rulik livid with Olympic referees afer Canada loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Radim Rulik wants the referees to be put in Czech for the way they officiated Wednesday\u2019s Olympic men\u2019s quarterfinals hockey showdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Czechia head coach lambasted the officiating after their 4-3 overtime loss against Canada<\/a>, and insisted that the refs were \u201cafraid to call anything against\u201d the Canadian squad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe referees really worry me. What they\u2019re allowing against us is unacceptable,\u201d Rulik told reporters, according to a translation of his postgame interview.<\/a> \u201cAfter every game, we send them two or three clips where they confirm that the opponent should have been penalized. I don\u2019t understand it. I just don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n

\" Coach
Czechia coach Radim Rulik reacts on the bench. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like everyone is afraid to call anything against Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s loss was Czechia\u2019s second in the Olympic tournament to Canada after getting crushed 5-0 in the preliminary round.<\/p>\n

Rulik also complained there were instances in which Czechia felt as if it were playing against the refs \u2014 and an opponent \u2014 during his team\u2019s Tuesday qualifier playoff win over Denmark.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were basically playing against six players,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to make excuses, and no one has to agree with me, but the video backs me up. In this respect, it\u2019s not a fair tournament. It was happening to us even against Denmark. The mix of NHL and European referees hasn\u2019t worked \u2014 everyone calls the game differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

One play in particular on Wednesday against Canada that seemed to miff Rulik came in the third period when Martin Ne\u010das was about to go on a breakaway.\u00a0Canadian defenseman and former Islander Devon Toews appeared to hook him in the neutral zone. But there was no penalty called.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2026 WINTER OLYMPICS<\/p>\n

\u201cI watch two NHL games on replay every single day,\u201d\u00a0 Rulik continued. \u201cThe play Necas made today \u2014 when his stick was touched on the breakaway \u2014 is always a penalty in the NHL. But suddenly, not here. I\u2019m really sorry about it. The guys deserved a top-level performance from the referees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey always admit afterward that we were right, but nothing ever changes. We should have had power plays against Canada. But they were afraid [David Pastrnak] or Necas would score another power-play goal. And if [Radko] Gudas was penalized, then Doughty should have been too for the hit on Pasta.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Milan,Mitch Marner is mobbed by teammates after scoring the game-winning goal in Canada\u2019s 4-3 overtime win over Czechia in the quarterfinals of the men\u2019s Olympic hockey tournament on Feb. 18, 2026. Amber Searls-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The rant by the Czechia coach comes after many pointed out that his team had six players on the ice when Ondrej Palat scored a short-lived go-ahead goal in the third period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To make matters even more absurd, there were seven Czech players on the ice as the team celebrated the goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canada managed to come back and win, first tying the game on a goal by forward Nick Suzuki with 3:27 left in the third.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maple Leafs star Mitch Marner scored the game-winner 1:22 into OT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Radim Rulik wants the referees to be put in Czech for the way they officiated Wednesday\u2019s Olympic men\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[377],"tags":[19,9439,5,4,2602,43,2787,31286],"class_list":{"0":"post-463316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-czech-republic","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-olympics","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-winter-olympics","15":"tag-winter-olympics-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116097269427772217","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}