The Ducks are skilled, no doubt, but their win last night comes at the expense of their and the league’s credibility. Tripping a player with the puck to strip him of it, cross-checking a captain out of the game, and cross-checking in an altercation but only the other player gets a penalty for the dispute are all very obvious non-calls, and far from ones that are away from the action and have any justifiable excuse for being missed. For them to all happen in the same game, with more questionable calls emerging during the 3rd period push by the Sens that were not deemed penalties in the first with the Ducks leading and pressuring, is inexcusable. I protest, for the Sens and for all abused teams and fans. You should too.

Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 03/04/08 at 08:41 AM ET

I’ve seen worse-officiated games.  Sorry, but you won’t get a whole lot of sympathy from Ducks fans, who have been shorthanded more than any team in the league this year (many times on reputation). 

The difference?  Carlyle’s cool enough to not get ejected when the calls go against Anaheim.

Posted by Earl Sleek from Los Angeles, CA on 03/04/08 at 11:52 AM ET

That’s the life you face when you pride yourself on being a hard-checking team, when your assistant captain deems the last two rounds of the playoffs a good time to get suspended twice for his physical mis-plays. I’m sure I don’t watch enough Ducks games to know what happens to them all the time, just as you might not have seen how the Sens have been misfortuned by the officials game in and game out.

If you want to go on stats, yes, the Ducks are most penalized, but they are the pinnacle of physical teams. Ottawa, which barely hits (a shame), is 7th, with 90% of the penalties Anaheim has. Now flip it over to powerplay opportunities, and the Ducks are 9th, with over 91% of the powerplay opportunities that the leading Canes have. Ottawa, however, is 27th, and fall to 28th in road PPOs, a full 10% lower than the 27th place team. Only we and the Panthers appear in the worst spots in both cases.

Point is, I think we can all complain about officiating. If they can have goals reviewed, couldn’t a team have a limited number of penalties video reviewed in a game too? Or at least tell us that you are (if you are) watching every game, and noting the gross errors in calls so that we know you are trying to improve.

Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 03/04/08 at 01:24 PM ET

I agree with a “challenge” type thing in the NHL. Teams are limited to 1 challenge which could be used for goal reviews, or penalty reviews. If the challenge does not overturn the ruling, that team has to keep it’s players on the ice, and the faceoff goes to their defensive zone, same as an icing call.

As far as the game, the Sens just lost it, and Murray was the antithesis. Never seen that from Murray before.

Posted by Itlan on 03/04/08 at 03:07 PM ET