Minnesota Wild (1-2)
2.33 Goals For (13th)
3.00 Goals Against (11th)
12.5% Power Play (11th)
90.9% Penalty Kill (2nd)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 0G 4A = 4pts
2. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 0G 3A = 3pts
3. #2 Charlie Coyle ~ 2G 0A = 2pts
4. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 1G 1A = 2pts
5. #6 Marco Scandella ~ 1G 1A = 2pt
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #8 Cody McCormick ~ 14 PIM’s
2. #24 Matt Cooke ~ 6 PIM’s
3. #11 Zach Parise ~ 4 PIM’s
Top Goaltender:
1. #35 Darcy Kuemper (1-0) 0.00GAA 1.000SV%
2. #30 Ilya Bryzgalov (0-2) 4.85GAA .822SV%
Vs.
Colorado Avalanche (2-1)
3.0 Goals For (8th)
2.33 Goals Against (5th)
9.1% Power Play (5th)
87.5% Penalty Kill (6th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #26 Paul Stastny ~ 3G 4A = 7pts
2. #29 Nathan MacKinnon ~ 1G 6A = 7pts
3. #92 Gabriel Landeskog ~ 3G 0A = 3pts
4. #90 Ryan O’Reilly ~ 1G 1A = 2pts
5. #11 Jamie McGinn ~ 1G 1A = 2pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #55 Cody McLeod ~ 12 PIM’s
2. #8 Jan Hejda ~ 6 PIM’s
3. #2 Nick Holden ~ 4 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #1 Semyon Varlamov (2-1) 2.21GAA .937SV%
Oh, the irony. When there seems to be unequal officiating already this early in the playoffs, there happens to be an article about officiating in The Hockey News’ Playoff Preview issue. And before you accuse me of liking and approving of the most recent action by Minnesota’s Matt Cooke, you can get that thought out of your mind right now. What Minnesota fans are upset about is the double standard. We knew the minute that Cooke was assessed a kneeing minor in Monday night’s game,we most likely weren’t going to see him for the rest of this series. The problem is that Bryan Bickell committed the exact same offense on Vladimir Sobotka. What did Bickell get for the same dangerous action? Only a 2-minute minor. There was no phone hearing. No in-person meeting. The biggest crime, is that the name of the villain is Cooke. Oh yes, I know he has a history, although he’s been rather clean in recent years. If Cooke wasn’t Cooke, he like Bickell would still be playing.
Now back to The Hockey News. Strangely enough, is the article is about NHL officials who pretty much go out of their way to appear impartial. The study was conducted by Michael Lopez and Kevin Snyder. Lopez is a doctoral candidate at Brown University and Snyder is an assistant professor of sports management at Southern New Hampshire University. The study was published in the International Journal of Sport Finance. Now Lopez admits, he’s a serious Boston Bruins fan. The idea came to Lopez during the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals between Boston and Vancouver. The impetus happened in Game 5. Boston had received three straight power plays in the first period. Early in the second period, the Bruins received yet another power play. As Lopez stated, the Bruins had every chance to win, but didn’t deliver on those chances. Then, Boston would be called for three straight penalties of their own nor would they get another power play the rest of the game. Vancouver would ultimately win Game 5. Lopez and Snyder would analyze the numbers for all the playoff games between 2006 and 2011. In their analysis, they discovered that the pressure to make make-up calls increased as the pressure on the officials also rose. They also discovered the team that was called for more penalties earlier in the first period, were 75% more likely to have fewer 2nd period penalties than the opponent. They also investigated whether being the home team had any weight on the matter, and you can easily figure out what they found. Lopez and Snyder also discovered that the score had no weight on whether or not penalties were called.
Probably the bit I found most applicable to this series regarding the study, was that in a tied game after the 1st period, the team with the most penalties was 15% more likely to win the game. Considering the officiating in this series, as much as it frustrates Wild fans, it just might bode well for Minnesota’s chances. It has felt like we’re the team marching to the box more often than not. And yes, Minnesota had more penalties than Colorado on Monday night. However, Colorado had the last two penalties of the game, although neither were in overtime. That was another part of the study. It was found that many of the make-up calls seemed to be unconsciously done. Officials want to come off as unbiased. And as former official Kerry Fraser said in The Hockey News any official who claims to have never made a make-up call is not being honest with you or themselves.
Yes, the officiating has been frustrating. While the study by Lopez and Snyder is interesting, I’d rather we didn’t need such studies. I just wish the officials would call the game before them. Call the hooking, the interference. It’s been looking more and more like the hockey of the days prior to the rule changes. The clutching and grabbing are all over the place again. Then when you add that to the dangerous garbage that’s happening, whether called or not called, it’s getting more and more annoying to the fans. Even while officials are trying to appear unbiased they have a long way to go to becoming truly unbiased. If our officials were unbiased, Bickell would have been suspended as well.
Now, if we can somehow avoid Brad Meier this round, Minnesota just might stand a chance.
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