Meh. I'm not just a pure headline reader and I still think this is bullshit. One pre-tourney game vs. zero exhibition games, I mean who really gives a shit. The bottom line is the Leafs weren't allowed to have on-ice officials because it was an unfair advantage; something not all teams could do. Here we have the same thing, because there are not even enough NHL officials to have them at every team's training camp. Here's a list of NHLOA staff. 34 referees, 34 linesmen. Enough for 17/31 teams. There's a few listed who split time between the AHL/NHL, but its not enough to make up the difference. Maybe if they only took one ref and one linesman each, and basically every single official in the league was in. But that seems pretty unlikely.