That hockey game last night was a fucking sham and a mockery of hockey. It was a shamockery! What I witnessed last night was one of the worst officiated NHL games to ever grace the airways. I don’t know what the hell happened in Montreal last night, but David Stern (NBA Commissioner for those who are unaware) had to have sent an e-mail to his boy Gary Bettman on how to fix games. I’m not one to attack the referees during a game because it’s a hard job, especially in hockey. They miss offside calls, they miss penalties, they’re human but last night was disgusting. I don’t know where to begin. Oh wait, yes I do.
Let’s start out with the goalie interference call on Carey Price at the end of the first period. I tried to find the video but there wasn’t one floating around the internet, surprisingly. With the Bruins on a power play, Patrice Bergeron BRUSHES Carey Price who then hits the deck and Bergeron gets hauled away with goalie interference. Later in the game, the Habs are on a 2-on-1 and Scott Gomez absolutely demolishes Tim Thomas, but no call.
And this was the trend of the night. The Canadiens were getting away with a lot of shit (like Subban’s cross check to the head of Chris Kelly and Mara’s high stick on Rich Peverley) but the Bruins were called with such miniscule things. The biggest injustice of this miniscule refereeing? The phantom slashing call on Nathan Horton while Horton was on a break away. It’s amazing if you think about it. There’s no doubt in my mind that Horton would’ve buried that break away, but if you watch the replay Horton gets hooked then gets called for a slash. It’s unbelievable! Here’s the video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWHB9jK3Thg&w=425&h=349]There’s no fucking slash there, unless I’m blind. That play happens a million times a game and suddenly that’s a slash? That was the second time where the Bruins PP was negated because of a “penalty” on the Bruins. If someone can legitmatly point out where the “slash” was, I’ll listen but to me that’s a standard play that happens all the time.
Last point I want to touch on is the Lucic hit on Spacek. Here’s the video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAP657MO4Zo&w=560&h=349]
Do I believe that Lucic deserved a penalty on his hit to Spacek? Absolutely. Give the guy two minutes in the box and move on. Now, Lucic was being taken to the box when the referee looked over and saw Spacek laid out like he was shoved into a stanchion. The referee then decides to give Lucic a 5 minute major and a game misconduct. Un-fucking-believable. Let’s look at the NHL rulebook folks:
41.3 Major Penalty – The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a major penalty, based on the degree of violence of the impact with the boards, to a player guilty of boarding an opponent (see 41.5).
41.5 Game Misconduct Penalty – When a major penalty is imposed under this rule for a foul resulting in an injury to the face or head of an opponent, a game misconduct shall be imposed.
Here’s the issue with rule 41.3, it allows the referee to use his discretion when assesing these penalties. Based on the hit from Lucic, that was not a five minute major for boarding, not even close. A lot of people are also saying it’s because Spacek was cut on his forehead from the hit. I’m sorry, do you mean cut from his helmet? If Spacek isn’t wearing that stupid visor, he doesn’t get cut and Lucic doesn’t get a major. Major aside, my issue is with the consistency of the NHL officials when it comes to those kind of hits. Mike Richard, Daniel Briere and Raffi Torres all had hits that were worse than what Lucic did and two of those on the wrong end of those hits missed a game or two – no calls and no suspensions. Lucic hits Spacek, who does his best Pacioretty impression, gets the major and Spacek barely misses a shift.
The officiating sucked, plain and simple.
After the jump, more suckiness!
Another sucky thing on the ice last night was the Bruins power play. That power play is the suckiest sucks who ever sucked. The Bruins are now 0-19 on the power play in the first round. ZERO FOR NINETEEN! Are you fucking kidding me? How can you not score a power play goal? Do the Bruins realize they have an extra man when they go up five on four? That means that there is one man open all the time. How does the power play coach still have a job on this team? They’re pathetic.
It’s even more evident how bad the Bruins power play is when you watch other teams execute theirs. I was watching Game 6 against the Sabres and Flyers and the Flyers were on the power play. They had someone screening Miller and their defensemen were basically at the same level as the fucking faceoff dots, not teetering in front of the blue line like the Boston defensemen. The Flyers worked the puck around to their point for a one-timer, but their defenseman were actually in the vacinity of the net.
The Bruins power play is just pathetic. Most of the time the Bs can’t get past center ice to set-up in the offensive zone and when they do they pass the puck until a member of the opposing team pokes it away and clears it. It’s a fucking mess.
– Random Thoughts –
– I’m getting Jameson on the way home. Tonight is going to be a shitshow, win or lose.
– Chara is 0-7 in Game 7’s in his career, yikes.
– Tomas Kaberle is a fucking waste of time, space, draft picks and Joe Colbourne. For a guy that was supposed to be a major addition to the power play, he’s been the complete opposite. It amazes me that Julien still plays the guy, he’s a fucking waste. There are rumors that Kaberle came to Boston out of shape and if these are true, Burke definitely got over on Chiarelli this time. My bigger concern is that Chiarelli isn’t going to admit to his mistake and re-sign Kaberle to save face, which would make everything worse. The guy is not fit for Boston and Boston will not win with him anchoring the blue line. Fucking hell, the guy has been demoted to the third pairing! There’s no way Kaberle is a Bruin in October.
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