I think we have just witnessed the single worst call in the modern era of replay sports.  This one even trumps the Pylon-gate call in the Michigan-Michigan State game last year.  Simply unbelievable.

Posted by tigerjeb from East Lansing on 11/19/09 at 09:28 AM ET

Can’t do it. When you’re right Chief you’re right. That will probably go down as maybe the worst call of the season.

As hockey fans, we can only hope that it will be.  Somehow, I suspect we will see one or two worse.

Does anyone here ref any rec (or other) hockey?  If so, I have a question—how long does it take from “intent” to sound?  Seems like it should be ~1 sec at most—and, if so, the NHL could use replay sound to say ‘that goal was in before you intended to blow the whistle.”

Get all the refs together, time their whistle-blowing mechanics, and move on with it.  If it takes you the 3 seconds we heard last night, you should be fired because you’re going to get someone killed out there by not getting the whistle to your mouth quickly enough.

Posted by Stevis on 11/19/09 at 09:32 AM ET

OMG!11!1 Somone get the president on the phone! Its official; the refs are in kahootz with Bettman, the talking walnut, and the Commies, all in a plan to make Detroit fans sad!

Posted by CJHMeister on 11/19/09 at 09:42 AM ET

The referees are just trying to do their jobs. Usually they do a better job than pretty much anyone else could do.

So are the guys in Toronto.

Put yourself in their shoes, the Toronto guys. On one side you have a team from Dallas, Texas, which has oodles of expendable cash to support an N.H.L. franchise but is very short on seat-filling fans. On the other side you have Detroit, which has next to zero in loose corporate cash these days but a fanbase deep enough to match a Canadian city six times its size.

And this Detroit team keeps [winning.

What are these guys supposed to do? What would you do if put in the league’s situation?

I mean, the N.H.L. puts itself through hell to get a salary cap system, and make sure its salary cap system could dismantle the “big spending” franchises and their obvious spending advantages. They weren’t talking about the Rangers, here. There was only one exempli gratia, just as there was one and only exempli gratia for the down-and-outs, Poor Pittsburgh, who had to trade away all of their talent to the point where Rico Fata was the best player in uniform, and “had to” leave their 1st overall draft pick, an obviously NHL-ready fella, in the minors for financial woes. And who “totally deserved” a 2nd overall pick (Evgeni Malkin) in the next draft, and “totally deserved” to “randomly” get the N.H.L.‘s version of LeBron, and “totally deserved” to come out of lockout into the best free agent market in N.H.L. history spending like mad-mofos.

This wasn’t exactly a chain of events meant to be “fair.”

And what happens: a few years later these guys are hoisting the cup again!

And not just hoisting the cup, but doing it directly against the N.H.L.‘s erstwhile e.g. of pre-cap woe, the purpose-rebuilt Pens and their savior child.

Have a little remorse for the league, here, guys. Their record of futility against Detroit’s hockey team makes Rush Limbaugh’s campaign against U.S. liberalism actually look moderately successful.

Take away every early-round pick from them, and THEN rig the salary cap so that teams basically have to play their draft picks early and often, and they find superstars in the 5th through 7th rounds. Like LOTS of superstars. Like, I dunno, a perennial Hart AND Selke trophy candidate, or like the best defenseman of a generation!

The league’s tried like, everything. Detroit was building by stockpiling raw players and allowing their skills to germinate in Europe, so the NHL makes a rule that forces franchises to rush players to North America or lose ‘em.

Really? An arbitrary rule that undermines the league’s talent pool, targeted at just one franchise?

Now Detroit’s turned to the NCAA to extend the development period for drafted players, and the league is actually working on a deal with the NCAA to stop this from happening, to allow more kids to play in Juniors, so instead of coached, conscious, developed players the league can keep having draft after draft of over-hyped, over-rushed, and utterly option-less 17-year-old pros.

Why? Because Bettman is Rod-the-God Tine (ref: Infinite Jest, basically Karl Rove but fewer ethics, more power, a better marketing mind, but much more generally inept). He has studies from his tutelage under Roger Stern that says fans don’t want to see well-developed 28-year-olds—they get most excited about the ups and downs of hyped up 20-year-olds, who make mistakes and do flashy crazy things while trying to impress. Slowly easing Ville Leino onto the ice is not that thing.

He has plenty of evidence that Detroiters will flock to a dump like the Joe for their team no matter how desolate the local economy becomes or how marginalized their team becomes. Hell, sales of Steve Yzerman jerseys alone could fuel the league for a year—we’re talking current sales, for a retired guy!

In other words, the N.H.L. has maxed out all the money it can make from Detroit. There’s nothing to protect. There’s nothing to lose.

On the other hand, there’s a lot of executive cash floating around south of the Mason-Dixon line. But that’s also where locals have never seen a frozen pond and transplants came to get away from the memories of such. This equals fickle, i.e. you need to keep dangling winning and exciting Top 5 draft picks and young, mistake-prone superstars and potential to get these people to Keep Coming Back. What you don’t need is an established franchise dashing their hopes by “being better at playing hockey.”

And cities north of the Mason-Dixon Line, too, which need to be protected, provided they play the Bettman’s game instead of, you know, playing silly games, like ice hockey.

And yet this franchise keeps finding new and more innovative ways of winning N.H.L. hockey games. They get players to sign for less than market value by—gasp—treating players like human beings. They make up for back-end talent deficiencies and age by working harder. They do their homework. What can other teams do to keep up? Their homework? You mean, like, everyone has to do homework now? How fun does that sound?

So if you are the N.H.L., what else can you do? It’s not like they’re omnipotent. Other than, like, waive off a goal or two when opportunity presents, or pick-and-choose playoff referees by how well they respond to the unspoken wink and nudge (another trick picked up from the Tutelage of The Stern).

Really, were you expecting a call from Toronto to go any other way? Has it ever?

This isn’t conspiracy. Conspiracy is way better organized than this haphazard sniping, this demolition job handled with the same ineptitude that Bettman’s N.H.L. has demonstrated at everything else it’s done.

So stop with the conspiracy theories. It’s not conspiracy, but policy, badly executed. The guys in Toronto are just trying to do their jobs, which jobs are meant to make the NHL as popular in the North American market as footba..[scratch] baseba..[scratch] baksetb…[scratch] Texas Hold ‘Em.

Could you do any better?

Posted by Misopogon from Troy, MI on 11/19/09 at 10:15 AM ET

Pittsburgh sucks. Bettman didnt win them anything. The four or five years of purposely tanking to get top picks because their management is absolute shit is what won them that cup. Basically same thing with Mario, really sad to say but they tanked to pick him up too. too bad they cant find real talent hidden in the late rounds of the draft. Oh well. As for the goal, meh, refs are dumb and have screwed just about every team at some point.

Posted by Albert from Canada on 11/19/09 at 10:16 AM ET

Put yourself in their shoes, the Toronto guys. On one side you have a team from Dallas, Texas, which has oodles of expendable cash to support an N.H.L. franchise but is very short on seat-filling fans. On the other side you have Detroit, which has next to zero in loose corporate cash these days but a fanbase deep enough to match a Canadian city six times its size.

And this Detroit team keeps [winning.

What are these guys supposed to do? What would you do if put in the league’s situation?

make the RIGHT CALL, regardless of who benefits and who doesn’t.  blind myself to the jerseys anyone is wearing, look at the fact of what happened, and GET IT RIGHT.  that’s what I would do.

Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 11/19/09 at 10:19 AM ET

Clarification: By “Texas Hold ‘Em” I meant the card game, not the Stars’ defensive strategy.

Posted by Misopogon from Troy, MI on 11/19/09 at 10:24 AM ET

Posted by Misopogon from Troy, MI on 11/19/09 at 10:15 AM ET

Haha, great post Misopogon.  That was very well written, I like your humor.

make the RIGHT CALL, regardless of who benefits and who doesn’t.  blind myself to the jerseys anyone is wearing, look at the fact of what happened, and GET IT RIGHT.  that’s what I would do.

Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 11/19/09 at 10:19 AM ET

Paul:  I’m pretty sure his entire post was tongue-in-cheek.

Posted by BuzzFledderjohn on 11/19/09 at 12:04 PM ET

(I’m reposting this from Kukla’s main site)

Here’s the other weird thing - in the NHL’s play-by-play, they didn’t even give May a shot on goal (http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/PL020295.HTM, at the “13:56 left in the third period” mark):

Posted by BuzzFledderjohn on 11/19/09 at 01:07 PM ET

Just in case, ya know, anyone is interested. There is a “Fire Bettman” Facebook page. It only has about 300 members, I’m thinking they could use 19 more.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=79946566854&ref=search&sid=1493771227.2811241301..1

Posted by wingsfanindenver on 11/19/09 at 01:40 PM ET

At least no one almost lost an eye on that LaRue non-call.
My favourite Denis moment came in the 2006 playoffs where Justin Williams’ high sticked Saku Koivu right in the eye in front of LaRue and he missed the call.
Koivu missed the rest of the series and had significant damage to his eye.
What did the league do to LaRue?
Nothing.
In fact, Walkom came out the next day to say how great the officiating was.

Posted by Rich Thorpe on 11/19/09 at 02:23 PM ET

You sound like a 9-11 truther. It was a bad call. There’s some justification, though little.  I’m just as mad as you. Get over yourself, no one’s out to get us. Every time we lose a game it’s not Bettman’s fault. You make us all look like children.

Posted by Tim on 11/19/09 at 04:24 PM ET

Looking through these comments, I’m glad I never check Red Wings blogs like this. This is simply horrendous. You people make me embarrassed to say I root for the Red Wings, to say I’m from Detroit. I’m so thoroughly disgusted.

Some have suggested players try to INJURE refs? That sickens me, it truly does. Are we not proud anymore?

The Pens get on my nerves as much as anyone else, but why are we still claiming that it’s a conspiracy to help them win? In a blogpost about the Red Wing’s game last night, no less. These people are professionals. They don’t tank. They beat us. We need to start acting professional, not undercutting a young team’s success because they beat us. Yes, THEY beat us, not the refs, not the NHL, not Gary. Maybe it’s just a generational difference, but there used to be honor in losing. As a long-time booster of the team, I never saw this sort of behavior among my fellow fans. Never such hatred, such horrific vitriol.

Why can’t we respect our player’s efforts, and those of other people? Why do we have to bash, and make excuses, when we’re bested? When a call doesn’t go our way, why are people like ‘The Chief’ so quick to spew their hatred? There was bad call. That shouldn’t make you less of a fan. That shouldn’t make you hate the refs, our the league. You can be angry, and upset, but this is simply sad.

I pity people that have this sort of reaction. Have the younger fans, with out, heh, dominance in recent years, gotten spoiled, to the point where we hate and make excuses like bratty children? What happened to enjoying the game? Honor among fans?

I know I will never be back at this blog. I know none of you care, either. I just hope that things will change at some point. Hopefully we can learn to be gracious losers, and stop things like this blog. The last time I checked this blog was after our loss in the Stanely Cup, and I didn’t post then, but to pretend that we didn’t lose, like this ‘Chief’ did, was simply horrendous. These sort of things make me sick to my stomach. Can we grow up? This team and its fans are on a saddening downturn, and it just makes me feel awful to know I share seats at the Joe with them.

Posted by Tim on 11/19/09 at 04:38 PM ET

Posted by stonehands-78 from the beginning ... a WingsFan, on 11/19/09 at 07:23 PM ET

Posted by Misopogon from Troy, MI on 11/19/09 at 10:15 AM ET

Dude, that post is one of the most well written on this subject, so I took the liberty of quoting it in its entirety (with references of course) on my blog at http://fightnightatthejoe.blogspot.com/

Hope you don’t mind

Posted by Andy from Oslo, Norway on 11/20/09 at 12:08 PM ET

While I agree the league is corrupt and that Bettman and his cronies are entirely inept, the worst officiating in North American team sports is definitely found in the NBA, followed closely by the NFL.

Posted by Ryan from Toronto on 11/23/09 at 01:23 PM ET