Saturday, November 20, 2010

Penguins Get Help From the League!?

The Pittsburgh Penguins are the model franchise. Gary Bettman and the NHL clearly have an agenda with this team. And sometimes when this team needs a little extra, the referees or league officials or someone is there to do a little nudging.



The most noticeable way this is done is with the powerplay in the third. Game is tied or the Pens are losing and they emphasize a hook here, or slip a little around an opponent's stick there and the refs know what to do.

Well apparently last night one of the refs was not on the same page right away, but it was all fixed real fast.

Pittsburgh and Carolina Hurricanes were skating to a 3-3 tie at the moment. And of course a  penalty was called on Carolina to give Pittsburgh a chance to get the go a head win. After a shot on goal during the power play , and the whistle being blown, the puck crossed the goal line and Pittsburgh petitioned for a goal. The whistle clearly blew while Carolina's goalie Justin Peters still had the puck in front of the goal line. But Crosby and company complained so much that it was given a second look up stairs just to make sure. Wouldn't you know that the second look by league officials in Toronto decided that although the puck crossed the goal line clearly after the whistle that it should stand as a good goal. Maybe because they thought the whistle shouldn't have been blown so quick. Silly ref!

This gave the Pens a lead before the Hurricanes could come back and luckily send it into overtime and at least get a point from a team like the Penguins who will wait and wait and wait and hope it gets to a shootout so they have an easy win. And they did.

Without this non-goal being called a goal Pittsburgh never would have stood a shot against the big bad Hurricanes. I am just glad that finally someone is looking out for little teams in the league.

How many goals have been overturned in Pittsburgh for the opposing team? How many soft calls or non-existent calls have been made in the third to give Pittsburgh a chance to win? How many times has Pittsburgh benefited from a league that clearly allows bias to affect their decision making?( I'm looking at you Colin Campbell, Gary Bettman!) I mean, Campbell already has created loopholes to not suspend Gino Malkin in the playoffs and did not suspend Matt Cooke on a vicious hit on Marc Savard because he did not like Savard and likes the Penguins.  I want someone to do all the researching and math and find out how many calls, or non calls have benefited the Penguins since the lockout, since they have been dubbed the model franchise. This stuff makes me not want to be a hockey fan.

Here's the video. See for yourself. If you were Paul Maurice (coach of Carolina Hurricanes) what would you do?

goal

3 comments:

  1. saw it and agree, they love Mario and Sid. what happened to the intent to blow the whistle rule? think Avery and Torts get that call?

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's funny- the whistle clearly blew, which would mean the intent to blow the whistle would be even before that which would clearly make it a no goal. But I feel the War Room convo went more like this "Why did you blow the whistle...you gotta let them jam in there!" instead of about what happened. But thats just my bias opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What bugs me the most is Crosby's annoying whining when he sees the puck across the line. He sounds like a frustrated hyena.

    ReplyDelete

What do YOU think?