Zebras’ work flusters Flames

Zebras’ work flusters Flames:


“I’ll share those thoughts with the league and with the supervisor of officials,” said Keenan, whose side was saddled with six straight minors in a nine-minute span in the second period. “I’m not going to comment on it. I don’t have a comment on it . . . I’m biting my tongue here.”

Flames captain Jarome Iginla was more outspoken about the penalty disparity — but not by much.

“I haven’t seen that (a string of penalties) in a playoff game. It wasn’t even that vicious. Nah, it’s a tough one,” said Iginla. “We didn’t agree with a lot of things, and it wasn’t just the calls that were against us. It was also when Owen (Nolan) was on a breakaway (and getting hauled down) . . . that was real frustrating.”

Here is one of those great mysteries of being a hockey fan: that players and coaches somehow continue to believe that it doesn’t matter whether one team is taking penalties or not — that somehow the referees should keep the penalty calling “even”, even if the actual play isn’t.

In other words, if one team keeps taking more penalties because, say, they’re on the edge of being blown out fo the building and barely hanging on, the referees sill shouldn’t call “too many” penalties on them (i.e., let them get away with them!), and if they don’t stop calling them, or go find trivial things to call the other team on.

In other words, it’s the referee’s job to not call a game as it happens, but to somehow keep the game balanced by not “over” calling a team that’s taking penalties because it’s struggling.

Huh?

In any event, during that 2nd period disaster by the Flames, every penalty called on them was deserved. And a few weren’t called that could have made it even worse. The team was on the edge, it’s play shambles, and they were hanging on (literally, at times) for their very game-life. And if it wasn’t for Kiprusoff, it could have been a serious blowout.

And the Nolan pull-down? Rules are pretty clear here: if you’re going for the puck, and you contact the puck first, then it’s a legal play and not tripping. Unless, of course, you’re looking for the referees to “balance’ the game. Which, in fact, they tried to do in the third….

On the other hand, when a team starts blaming refs instead of looking at it’s own bad play, it’s starting down the path of finding excuses for losing — and in the playoffs, once a team gets that in their head, game over. Keenan is running a knife-edge here between playing the refs to get an advantage and putting it in his player’s heads they can’t win because the refs won’t let them, and if the players get that mind-set going, it’s over.

Of course, it could be over anyway. That save on Nolan with 5 minutes left, you could just see the Flames deflate. They were manhandled much of the game, blown out in the 2nd (except for Kiprusoff), and the few times they really got good shots, Nabokov stopped them cold. And then the Nolan shot, where Nabokov almost looked like he was beyond out of the play and somehow got it — that could be the place where the Flames start thinking they can’t beat this guy.

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  • Kelpfreak

    I have to admit I found it…”amusing”…in the DET/NSH game today when the puck crossed the line as the net was lifted and it was immediately waved off. Not even a review. Huh.

  • Josh

    Let’s go down the line:
    FIRST PERIOD
    Hooking on Conroy 6:20 — marginal, but…
    Slashing on Marleau 6:55 — very marginal… ok it was a slash, but these are never called in the NHL.
    SECOND PERIOD
    coincidental roughing on Brown and Moss at 3:03 — dead on.
    Holding the stick on Kiprusoff at 6:07 — dead on.
    Holding on Iginla at 8:37 — marginal at best. I’ll give Keenan this one.
    Crosscheck on Hale at 11:23 — dead on.
    Hooking on Huselius at 14:17 — dead on.
    Crosscheck on Yelle at 15:09 — dead on.
    Slashing on Vandermeer at 15:33 — dead on.
    non tripping call on Carle somewhere in there — dead on, replays showed he got the puck first.
    Interference on Rivet at 20:00 — I didn’t like this one… maybe you could argue it was within the definition of interference, but what advantage is lost as the horn sounds?
    THIRD PERIOD
    Interference on Mitchell at 4:22 — this was the worst call of the game. Calling Phaneuf for roughing AND diving and not calling Mitchell would have been more justifiable (I wouldn’t have called both, but doing so would have been a better call than what they made).
    Hooking on Carle at 7:55 — dead on.
    Hooking on Lombardi at 9:41 — dead on.
    Slashing on Aucoin at 15:21 — I’ll give this one to Keenan as well. This was actually a bad call. There wasn’t much of a slash there at all, and it wasn’t a hook either.
    Coincidental roughing on Cheechoo and Nystrom at 16:49 — dead on.
    Crosscheck on Sarich at 17:29 — dead on.
    FINAL TALLY
    I have 3 calls on each side that were a bit marginal, and of them, I have one on the Flames that I’ll say the referee was wrong on, and one on the Sharks that the referee was dead wrong on (the call should have actually gone the other way). Overall I thought the officials did a smashing job, and if anything Keenan should be chewing his guys out for taking bad penalties.

  • Mike

    Yes, the Flames seemed to forget that they got three power play goals in a row early in the third. They also got the benefit of the doubt on the two goals on Wednesday night.
    Of course, fans near me in the cheap seats Thursday night were very quick to yell “let them play” after the Sharks took those penalties in the third. Funny that I didn’t hear that in the second period. It’s human nature.