Yes.

Love,

Thomas Holmstrom

Posted by Heaton on 02/02/08 at 12:44 PM ET

I rule no interference!

Posted by canesice on 02/02/08 at 12:45 PM ET

I be the judge?  OK.

1) No goal.

2) 2 minutes on Hannan for goaltender interference.

3) And 10 more for his vociferous argument after the call.

Man, that felt good.  I love having power.

Posted by BobTheZee on 02/02/08 at 12:52 PM ET

At first look it seems he was pushed into him.  But after watching it a couple times, Lebda was stationary and the Avs player ran into him and ended up on top of Hasek.  Tough call, but I think the refs made the right one.

Posted by Paul from Miami Beach, FL on 02/02/08 at 12:53 PM ET

ehhhhh….could have gone either way.  there have certainly been worse interference calls on Homer.  but had they called it a goal, i wouldn’t have been surprised.  fact is, that was the only scoring chance that the Avs had all night so of course they’re gonna bitch about it.  some of Budaj’s saves were unbelievable.  Pavel should have had at least two goals.

Posted by Alex from San Francisco on 02/02/08 at 01:03 PM ET

It was a classic Hasek dive.  That ‘Dique goal could have changed the whole game.

If the Wings cannot win without diving, then they deserve to lose.

I do not want Hasek to set the standard to make the NHL un-watchable like European soccer.

Watchout: if the Wings get a reputation for this, the next time Zetterberg gets hammered the officials may not be so kind.

Posted by w2j2 on 02/02/08 at 01:27 PM ET

Probably the right call. Red Wing player really just stood his ground. Colorado player tries to avoid hasek by grabbing the top of the net.

The pisser is that Hasek goes a flopping like a fish when he is barely touched. If hasek doesn’t dive he makes an easy save and we aren’t talking about this.

Posted by Ryan from Dapuddle on 02/02/08 at 02:42 PM ET

Does anybody have a link to where I can watch highlights of this game? I use to always go to NHL.com but for some reason I have to sit through their Esurance commercials and then I don’t even get to see the video I wanted to see. Go figure. Bettman’s and ass. Thanks for any help or links.

Posted by Derek from Davisburg, MI on 02/02/08 at 02:44 PM ET

For above comment: should’ve said “Bettman’s AN ass” not “and”.

Posted by Derek from Davisburg, MI on 02/02/08 at 02:45 PM ET

well…you can see them on the TSN.ca or Sportsnet.ca website, but they’re only Sportcentre clips..

apart from that erm…

the NHL’s you tube channel has it:

http://www.youtube.com/user/NHLVideo

though for some reason it’s not working yet…probably only just been upped, but then thats not the quality of the NHL.com video..

if you fake your IP to a european IP address you don’t get any ads in NHL.tv btw…

Posted by Pharazon from England on 02/02/08 at 03:41 PM ET

Thanks Pharazon.

Posted by Derek from Davisburg, MI on 02/02/08 at 07:46 PM ET

Um, it’s called the “incidental contact” call that costs Tomas Holmstrom half a dozen goals a year—including several occasions when Holmstrom is standing four feet away from a goaltender—except that this time it’s actually called on a player not named Tomas Holmstrom.

If a player doesn’t make every attempt to avoid a goaltender, they’ll call incidental contact, and Lebda gives Hannan a shove, and instead of falling backwards or standing his ground, he makes sure that he falls toward Hasek.  Judgment call, but, dive or no dive, if you fall toward the goalie, you’re playing with fire.

Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 02/03/08 at 07:33 AM ET

w2j2,

Are you serious? You act like Dom’s antics are something new to the League (even while calling it “classic Hasek”). He’s been doing that his whole career and last time I checked, it hasn’t become an epidemic among NHL goalies.

It certainly isn’t a revelation to the officials and it’s not going to have any more effect on what penalties get called than Hasek’s presence has already. He gets called for it frequently enough and the officials frequently ignore the “special treatment” Zetterberg’s back receives from opposition defensemen, not to mention the manhandling Datsyuk receives every shift. It’s nothing new.

Who knows? Maybe the official would have made the same call had Hasek not gone down. Hannan was virtually on top of him, after all. That should have been “incidental contact” or whatever in any case.

In a League where a blind eye is turned toward Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin going down every other time a defender touches them, I can stand to see illegal contact punished, even if it involves embellishment on Hasek’s part.

Give the Wings a little credit. There are no egregious divers on the team aside from Hasek, if he can even be called one for going down when illegal contact is made. I think the fact that the team maintains its integrity by keeping their feet outweighs Hasek’s flopping.

You say the Wings won because Hasek dove. I disagree. It isn’t as though that overturned goal was a back-breaker for the Avs. They had their best period of the game in the third and yet the Wings held them off. Colorado had ample opportunity to steal a game they had no business being in, but they blew it.

I’m not shedding any tears over it. The team that earned the win won the game.

Posted by Matt Saler from Grand Rapids, MI on 02/03/08 at 12:10 PM ET

Best Reply on Post Award goes to…..

........

Heaton!!!!

Congratulations Heaton, you’ve won free cheese courtesy of Chief’s Cheeseria.

Actually, the reason I wanted to post is to point this out:

Got it from George at Snapshots, who credits Freep.

“Lils is probably our best guy three-on-five,” Zetterberg said. “He blocks all the shots for us and he’s really big, so it was a little tougher for us when we had him and Nick in the box. It makes it even more impressive we could do it.”

um…“Lils” and Lidstrom in the same positive praise sentence. The former will also receive a contract extension shortly. Wow

Posted by Osrt on 02/03/08 at 12:59 PM ET

Watchout: if the Wings get a reputation for this, the next time Zetterberg gets hammered the officials may not be so kind.
Posted by w2j2 on 02/02 at 01:27 PM

...the officials frequently ignore the “special treatment” Zetterberg’s back receives from opposition defensemen, not to mention the manhandling Datsyuk receives every shift.
Posted by Matt Saler on 02/03 at 12:10 PM

Dead on, Matt. Datsyuk and Zetterberg are continually hooked, tripped, crosschecked, etc. yet amazingly stay on their feet most of the time. It almost seems like they get penalized (by not drawing penalties on clear infractions) for being so strong on their skates.

Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 02/04/08 at 11:14 AM ET

Lebda definitely pushes the Av into the goal. But he does not push him into Hasek. The Av hit the goalpost, then reaches over and basically punches Hasek. Enough for Hasek to fall down? Probably not. But that’s really not the point. You can’t touch the goaltender, and Lebda did not force him to. He was pushed into a position where he was close to Hasek, and he saw an opportunity to maybe get away with one. If he doesn’t do that, it’s not goaltender interference because Lebda pushed him.

Posted by Megan on 02/05/08 at 05:52 AM ET