Officiating during the Finals
My brother emailed me an article from a columnist in Vancouver that has been making its way around the Red Wings blogs and message boards. Here is the key section from the article.
While nobody really wanted to say so, how could you have possibly watched the calls in that series and not had the feeling that somehow, consciously or more likely unconsciously, there was a slant toward favouring the Pittsburgh Penguins?
While it seemed to be prevalent most of the series, at times to a far lesser extent, the final 20 seconds of Game 6 illustrated the problem perfectly.
With Detroit just having given up a power-play goal that allowed Pittsburgh to get to within 3-2 with under two minutes to go, the Pens had their goalie out and the Wings under siege.
But with about 18 seconds left, Pavel Datsyuk of the Wings managed to skate free with the puck, skate it out over the blue-line, but as he readied a shot toward the open net, he was hauled down with an abundantly obvious stick foul so blatant that Helen Keller would have been forced to raise her arm.
No call.
Larry Brooks, who isn’t exactly a non-partisan given his never missing an opportunity to bash the commish and his minions on sixth avenue, in addition to calls for and expectations of a backlash against Sid Crosby being handled with kid gloves, chimed in this weekend in this article. Here’s what he had to say:
…the unmistakable perception across North America that the Penguins were granted every conceivable benefit of the doubt throughout the playoffs.
Sidney Crosby is an exceptional individual and hockey player. He doesn’t need any outside help. He doesn’t need to get calls like the one he did in the final 10 minutes of Game 4 against Detroit when his little bunny-hop flop was rewarded with a penalty that gave his team a lengthy two-man advantage when they trailed by a goal.
The officiating of the final minute of the Game 6 Detroit clincher does not measure up to objective scrutiny.
There were obviously some very questionable calls and non-calls and my expectation is that Steve Walkom will handle the situation appropriately. The only real concern I have is that the league could have mandated that the team that is trailing in a game get the benefit of the whistle in order to make the game more exciting.
No, I don’t think the league or the officials were trying to help Pittsburgh win. But I do think there is a chance that the NHL views officiating as a way to make the game more exciting by giving the trailing team an extra skater or two. Whatever the case, the officiating in the Stanley Cup Finals wasn’t up to the standard you’d expect given what was at stake and the NHL must address this issue.
If the NHL does view officiating as being simply another avenue for marketing the game they would do well to nip that in the bud as it will bring much more bad publicity than the few extra ratings points are worth. The game really doesn’t need that kind of misguided help.
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