Auger has been caught up numerous times in on-ice controversy. In an NHL game on December 13, 2005, in Montreal, he assessed Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan a misconduct penalty after concluding he verbally abused an official and made culturally insensitive comments against the referees, who were French-Canadian. The NHL reviewed the allegations against Doan and concluded that they were baseless. After a game on January 11, 2010, Vancouver Canucks forward Alexandre Burrows accused Auger of having a personal vendetta resulting from an incident in a previous game. Burrows stated that Auger told him before the game that he was going to "get him back" for making the official look bad previously. Burrows received four penalties in the third period of the game, a Vancouver loss against the Nashville Predators. The league investigated Burrows' claims and concluded that they could not be substantiated, while stating that "Referee Auger’s intentions were beyond reproach." On March 12, 2011, numerous Islanders players accused Auger of conspiracy, saying they felt the officials saw the Devils' playoff run as more important than their own playoff push. There was a large discrepancy regarding power-play time. A New Jersey Devils player was insulting the Islanders coach and his assistants during the game and the player was not punished for his actions. Additionally, when Alternate CaptainFrans Nielsen spoke to Auger about what was going on, he was given what was the first game misconduct penalty of his career. Islanders interim coach Jack Capuano stated that he requested but received no explanation from Auger on the Nielsen penalty, citing difficulty engaging the officiating crew throughout the entire game. On March 13, 2011, the NHL Senior Vice President and Director of OfficiatingTerry Gregson confirmed to Newsday that the NHL was indeed looking into this matter. This incident followed a previous controversy involving Auger and the Islanders earlier that season in which a questionable spinning move was used to score during the shootout. Although the shootout goal was regarded as "close" to violating the continuous motion rule, the goal was ultimately ruled legal and Auger was not found to be at fault.
