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Home Team Gets The Calls
by Paul on 06/03/09 at 08:50 AM ET
Comments (10)
from David Staples of The Cult Of Hockey,
In Detroit, the referees favoured the Red Wings with a few crucial calls. But in the NHL, turnabout is fairplay and it’s expected. Pittsburgh would get its turn.
You see, there was no conspiracy at the NHL head office to favour the Red Wings. No, all there was at play was the very real human emotions of NHL referees, not wanting to incite the wrath of the most rabid of all fans, hometown fans during a Stanley Cup final....
There’s no doubt in my mind that the Pittsburgh Penguins got away with a few in the third period against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night, in Pittsburgh’s 4-2 win.
Most outrageous was a late elbow by agitator Matt Cooke to the head of Red Wings hustler Darren Helm. It was a typical Matt Cooke nasty, sneaky late hit special, the kind of late hit that the NHL should outlaw.
Right now, of course, the lateness of this hit wouldn’t get Cooke a penalty, though that elbow certainly should have.
read on with picture evidence of the Cooke hit…
Filed in: NHL Teams, Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Matt+Cooke,
Comments
Dude, you don’t have to come up with a phantom Wings penalty from the first two games to justify admitting you guys got the benefit last night.
Six skaters for thirty seconds? Really?!?
It’s a two way street even without the tit-for-tat. Don’t start sounding like Thid.
Posted by mudshark from Divetown, Colorado on 06/03/09 at 09:03 AM ET
Are you serious with that photo sequence?? Cooke is standing straight up and Helm is hunched over (coincidently at elbow level). What is the point? Doesn’t look that bad to me. I expected a photo with an out stretched elbow to the head. Looks to me as much as Helm running into the elbow as Cooke leading with the elbow.
Posted by McFly on 06/03/09 at 09:05 AM ET
Are you serious with that photo sequence?? Cooke is standing straight up and Helm is hunched over (coincidently at elbow level). What is the point? Doesn’t look that bad to me. I expected a photo with an out stretched elbow to the head. Looks to me as much as Helm running into the elbow as Cooke leading with the elbow.
Dr. Sasquatch and his Fizzix strikes again!
Posted by MarkK from Maryland on 06/03/09 at 09:06 AM ET
I have some problems with this guys analysis that penalty calls favor the home team, and have in this series. The big problem is that it looks only at PIM/game, and as Game 2 illustrates, this can be skewed heavily. Also, as has been noted by fans of both teams, the no-calls matter as much as the calls.
But following this guys model, the wings only had an advantage in the box score, because of the extra 12 minutes awarded to Malkin for instigator and game misconduct. Since Colin Campbell said those didnt realy happen, maybe we should leave those out.
If we look at penalties that were directly related to Hockey, then the wings were called for more penalties in the games in Detroit then the penguins were.
In both the regular season , and playoffs, Detroit averaged less penalty minutes pergame then Pittsburgh. Given this, If this guys model was accurate, we would anticipate Detroit to have several more powerplays in each home game in this series, and that just isnt the case. Even if we include the 19 second powerplay at the end of an allready decided game 2, than the teams are even. Hardly favoring Detroit.
Posted by jwad on 06/03/09 at 09:20 AM ET
there was at play was the very real human emotions of NHL referees, not wanting to incite the wrath of the most rabid of all fans, hometown fans during a Stanley Cup final
And he says that like it’s no big deal. What a fuchin idiotic statement.
This Staples guy is in the lead by a mile for the Douchebag Blogger of the Year Award.
Posted by Red Winger from Sault Ste. Marie on 06/03/09 at 10:04 AM ET
God, can we PLEASE stop talking about the refs???
Posted by Incognetis from Exile in Alabama on 06/03/09 at 10:08 AM ET
The home team gets all the calls?
I guess that’s why they called all the charging and interference and crosschecking calls against the Pens in Detroit, right?
Right?
Posted by Garth on 06/03/09 at 10:12 AM ET
God, can we PLEASE stop talking about the refs???
That’s a question you should ask Gary Bettman. He’s the guy who wants his league officiated the way it is, much like David Stern wants the NBA officiated the way it is.
If the point was calling it by the book, we’ve already seen that the NHL can make it’s referees call the game in a new fashion. Since they are obviously not calling it by the book, the only conclusion we can draw is taht the NHL isn’t requiring that to happen.
Posted by HockeyinHD on 06/03/09 at 12:49 PM ET
Yawn....
I knew the Wings fans would pull out the tin foil conspiracy hats, but I didn’t think the Pens fans would follow suit.
“If my team doesn’t win it’s the ref’s fault!! My team never does anything wrong, but we still get penalties against us!! And the meany other team are a bunch of cheaters that never get called!! Whaaaaaaa”
Wow. Get a grip folks. It’s the finals. Both teams are going to cheat and take every liberty they can.
Posted by AvsRock from My timeshare in insanity... on 06/03/09 at 04:40 PM ET
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To this article’s point, Wings got away with an elbow to the head of Staal by Samuelson in Game #2 also. I think they both should have been penalties, but I guess it’s fair in a twisted way.
Posted by penguinsfan on 06/03/09 at 08:53 AM ET