It’s like death by 1,000 self-inflicted wounds because a long referee memory could result in short end of the infraction stick sooner or later. 

What wasn’t called was a story Friday.

And so was the two-headed monster that is Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The stars of wonder combined for eight points (2-6) and nine shots in a 4-3 overtime victory over the Vancouver Canucks to even the second-round playoff series at one win apiece.

Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet could have taken issue with a number of missed or questionable calls, but he has bigger problems to overcome when the series shifts to Edmonton for Game 3 on Sunday.

His club didn’t have an answer for McDavid and Draisaitl and the bench boss didn’t go where he could have gone about the officiating. Each team was assessed five minors, but the missed calls were stunning.

“Tough job — tough job,” said Tocchet. “The only thing I don’t like is the slew-foots. I like Kelly (Sutherland) and maybe they missed a couple on Huggy (Quinn Hughes) are what I didn’t like. But other than that, what are you going to do? “There was a lot of stuff out there tonight.

That’s a safe and smart way to summarize an encounter that went from bumps in the night to sticks in the face, a spear, a mosh-pit and enough elevated testosterone to ignite a brawl.

It comes with the territory of playoff hockey, but when players have no idea where the officiating line is drawn, you get what the Canucks got Friday.