I'm going to be "that guy" and blame the officiating.

[EspoForever]

[quote name="Ton"]



Huet gives up that puck and everyone nails him for not paying attention, it was a soft goal no doubt and a bad play by Hjalmarsson (something that isn't said often about either player, but then again, that's probably why we lost).



I thought Hjalmarsson and Keith may have played some of their worst hockey in a long time in game 4. four of the goals scored, they were directly involved and it was their fault.



Hjalmarsson on the first soft goal, Hjalmarsson on the weak clearing attempt which happened to be the second goal... then Keith leaving Giroux wide open and standing on the wrong side of the net (someone blamed Kane? Really? Ketih was in no mans land there) then Keith on the empty netter.



Fuck the officiating, these guys need to play better and MUST play better.



Faceoffs were atrocious. Flyers won every single important face-off, give or take a couple.



Passing was beyond brutal. Forget the crappy ice, it hasn't exactly effected the Flyers at all so I can't say that excuse is valid when we can barely make a single tape-to-tape pass all game... I mean how fucking hard is it? Kane was the only player that could actually do it yesterday... I honestly did not see any other player complete a tape to tape pass... not ONE!



Game 5 is a must win.[/quote]



I hear you on all of that, we were bad too, but on the faceoffs, did you note how many times we were jockeying JUST LIKE THE FLYERS and they threw our center out and not theirs? It must have happened 25 times. Seriously!



We do need to play better but it is better to play well when you are not getting screwed. The Flyers are in our heads and so are the stripes and that is a crock.

 

[Maiden]

[quote name="EspoForever"]



Spot-on, man! The Flyers (as I was expecting) have looked great in this series, but I firmly believe that a large reason for that is that they seem to be able to do pretty much anything they want and the Hawks have been forced to play as if they have eggshells in their shoulder pads and they go to the box if they get broken.



As an illustration of what happens when the Flyers are forced to follow the rules, look what happened late in the 3rd yesterday once they Flyers were sent to the box a couple times. UNFORTUNATELY, they committed 3 blatant penatlies between 17:00 and 18:00 of the 3rd letting them know "anything goes again."



If anyone thinks I am JUST being a homer, I clearly saw the Sharks being preferred over the Red Wings in their series this year...and I did not want to have to play the Wings, but the slanted treatment in that series was laughable.



The NHL's integritry has sunk to near zero with me. I will always love hockey. It's the greatest game in the world, but over the last few years I have been given serious reason to consider getting my hockey fix somewhere else...College, high school Anywhere but from Buttman's NBA "marketing driven" version of the NHL.



Careful NHL: Your Flyer is open--and you preferences are showing!![/quote]



100% accurate and well written.....well done.



Also, nice Neil Peart reference too.

Greatest rock drummer in history.

 

[whalerhawk]

[quote name="PatrickSharpRules"]The officiating has been so unbelievably one sided it makes my skin crawl when thinking about the first 2 calls last night. Goaltender interference on Ladd for hitting a player who fell a good 3-4 feet into Leighton. Not to mention the play had moved on going out of the Flyers zone, and Leighton wasn't even knocked over he was just pushed into the net. That call was utter fucking bullshit.[/quote]



The call on Ladd was legit. The stupid VS guys said it was goalie interference, but it wasn't. The ref called INTERFERENCE, not goalie interference. The call was for Ladd hitting the defenseman in the first place, a defenseman who didn't have possession of the puck. The fact that he pushed the guy into the goalie is irrelevant. The call was the perfect definition of interference. He hit a guy who wasn't playing the puck in any fashion.



Edit: Razz beat me to it.

 

[Guest]

I'd still like to see the Hawks take the puck to the net instead of this perimeter bullshit. If they get dragged down with no call, then it makes the refs being bias a bit more obvious and then the media can go after the league with solid proof. It seems like these guys are a bit scared to take it to the net. If the Hawks are going to sit back and play scared of the refs giving them penalties then why not just forfeit? Sounds like they are already letting the Flyers take the cup. Why not go out there and play balls to the wall for a solid fucking 60 minutes and at least looking back we can say we were the better team and got hosed, instead of playing tentative and being scared of the guys in stripes.

 

[Maiden]

[quote name="whalerhawk"]



The call on Ladd was legit. The stupid VS guys said it was goalie interference, but it wasn't. The ref called INTERFERENCE, not goalie interference. The call was for Ladd hitting the defenseman in the first place, a defenseman who didn't have possession of the puck. The fact that he pushed the guy into the goalie is irrelevant. The call was the perfect definition of interference. He hit a guy who wasn't playing the puck in any fashion.



Edit: Razz beat me to it.[/quote]



Agreed. So by definition Pronger should have at least 15 minor penalties for interference in this series? YES? That's the beef I have with the officiating in this series.

It isnt close to apples to apples. More like watermelons to apples.

 

[Pez68]

If it isn't obvious to you by now that the NHL is attempting to influence what teams move on and win series, based on the officiating, I'm not sure what to tell you. How are the Stanley Cup refs chosen, and do they get bonuses for reffing through the playoffs? It seems to me like the refs that have called the most even sided games disappeared pretty quickly. How does the NHL determine who moves on from a reffing standpoint? Can the refs be influenced to call games how the NHL wants them to call games, by advancing those refs through the playoffs?



Edit: Found info on how they are paid. The officials earn approx. $55k extra if they ref every round of the playoffs. That turns out to be anywhere from a 25% bonus to a 50% bonus depending on their regular season pay rate. WOW.... If that isn't incentive to call games the way your bosses want, I don't know what is.

 

[CLWolf81]

[quote name="Pez68"]Edit: Found info on how they are paid. The officials earn approx. $55k extra if they ref every round of the playoffs. That turns out to be anywhere from a 25% bonus to a 50% bonus depending on their regular season pay rate. WOW.... If that isn't incentive to call games the way your bosses want, I don't know what is.[/quote]



:shock: Umm... where did you get that info? :shock: