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Is Hockey Fixed?
by Alanah McGinley on 05/19/08 at 03:15 PM ET
Comments (5)
From Stu Hackel at the NYT blog Slapshot,
We’ve all heard this kind of talk, and some people believe it — the notion that the NHL prefers a certain outcome and encourages on-ice officials to act accordingly.
It seems to us there is more loose talk about the NHL preferring certain teams over others than you hear attached to other major leagues. Since hockey trails other major sports in popularity by a good distance, those who whisper or shout such allegations do nothing to help hockey’s quest for respect.
The media plays a role in this and, no doubt, refuels fans when they do. A few weeks ago a Philadelphia columnist claimed the officials favored Montreal, that the NHL wanted the Canadiens to beat the Flyers since “Canada looks out for its own.” A couple of weeks later, after the Flyers won the series, he recanted citing the emotions generated by the playoffs for his distortion.
much more... on the debate surrounding the league’s integrity vs some people’s paranoia
Filed in: NHL Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
Comments
Fixed? Yeah. That is why we had Ottawa/Anahiem, Carolina/Edm and Tampa/Calgary Finals the last three seasons. This guy must be an idiot. If he wants to talk about fixing games he should look no further than the NBA. Home teams never lose because refs make sure of it. And I won’t even mention the NBA ref who has admitted to betting on 100’s of NBA games. Basketbal is the only sport where the ref can actually give a team points by sending them to the free throw line. If the NHL was fixed the Rangers would have won more that one Cup in the last 100 years......
Posted by kevin on 05/19/08 at 02:41 PM ET
I think some of the talk comes from chatter in the MSM. eople hear things like, “the sport is in trouble unless they can get Sidney Crosby to win a Cup,” and anyone with a brain knows that just such an outcome would be good for the bottom line in hockey, so it’s a really short jump to “the game is fixed to make sure the outcome will ensure the most profits fro the owners.”
It doesn’t help the conspiracy buffs that the justifications for suspensions of important players (or not) and the justifications for post-hoc reinterpretations of rules are so opaque. It would be more honest if once in a while someone said, sorry, we screwed up instead of trying to make a ruling make sense after the fact. Conspiracy talk is probably more the result of frustration than anything rational.
(And if it was fixed then Toronto would have to be better, wouldn’t it?)
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 05/19/08 at 03:56 PM ET
“If the NHL was fixed the Rangers would have won more that one Cup in the last 100 years...... “
“(And if it was fixed then Toronto would have to be better, wouldn’t it?)”
That’s exactly the kind of move that those nefarious conspirators would implement to throw people off track!
Posted by Shane from Saskatoon on 05/19/08 at 05:19 PM ET
Shane:
Stop feeding red meat to my paranoia! 
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 05/19/08 at 05:28 PM ET
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I wish they were smart enough to pull off such a nefarious conspiracy ... simply because then there wouldn’t be stupid officiating, arbitrary punishments, ear-splittingly bad broadcasters, and uniforms that look like they were attacked by a seamstress with a piping fetish.
Of course, if they were that smart, there wouldn’t have been a lockout in the first place.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 05/19/08 at 02:38 PM ET