NHL Playoff Officiating Woes

The officiating in the playoffs has not been consistent with the regular season.  It never is.

Oh, the league will not acknowledge it.  Ask Gary Bettman about an inconsistency and his reaction is like Hillary Clinton's when you ask about the descrepencies between her rhetoric and her record on NAFTA--despite video evidence to the contrary, there will come no acknowledgement.

In game five of the Sharks-Flames series alone there were three atrociouscalls or non-calls that went against the Flames.  (Wayne Primeau did nothing that could even have been interpreted as slashing in a penalty that led to a Sharks' goal in the second period.  Torrey Mitchell blatantly tripped someone and another penalty I do not recall took place right in front of an official in the third period and were not called.)

Yet unbelievably, the game definitely favoured Calgary overall.  In the first half of the game alone, Owen Nolan laid atop Christian Ehrhoff for a couple seconds after pulling him down (not by grabbing, however); since no call was made, Ehrhoff retaliated by tripping Nolan, which wascalled.  Milan Michalek was knocked down away from the puck on an even-man rush.  Ryan Clowe was called for roughing Iginla (leading to a Flames' goal) when he did the exact same thing that was done to Ehrhoff minutes earlier.

This is not the first game in this series to feature terrible officiating.  Corey Sarich's blood-curdling hit on Patrick Marleau violated at least two rules.

According to section 43 of the NHL rulebook (http://www.nhl.com/ext/0708rules.pdf), it was charging both because he "jumped into" (left his feet) and "as a result of the distance traveled (did) violently check" Marleau.  According to section 46, it was elbowing because his elbow was extended.

Moreover, by the way calls are typically made, roughing also could have been called because it was a blow to the head wherein Patty did not duck.  However, the reality is the rule here states it must be a punching action taken by the offender, so those calls in the regular season are erroneous.

The grey area has a lot to do with the inconsistency.  For instance, the way the rule reads, a major could have been called on this hit because it caused injury: "A major penalty must be enforced under this rule for a foul resulting in an injury to the face or head of an opponent."  Marleau's nose bled and he was required to get off the ice because of the blood.

Excuse me?  How does whether a player gets injured change the actual infraction?  Either a hit is legal, illegal, or flagrantly illegal, regardless of resulting injury.

And let me say that as an enforcer, I would take that trip to the box for two minutes and make that hit every time.  Those kind of hits send messages, change games, and test teams with a reputation for being soft like the Sharks have.

Since no call was made (and perhaps even had there been one), the Sharks did what they had to and came to their captain's defense.  Inexplicably, the same crew that thought the hit was not worth penalizing did assess one against Clowe for doing what they would not--protecting Marleau.

The bad calls are not exclusive to this series.  The Nashville Predators believe they lost each of the first two games because of a bad call.  While there is no proof they would have gotten the game winner in either, they never got the chance because instead of the game remaining tied, they had to pull their goalie and Detroit scored on the empty net.

I only saw the one bad call, and it was not an easy one to make at full speed.  But to me, the puck striking the official did give Detroit a clear advantage, and that is the guideline for blowing the play dead.

Then there was Sean Avery's antics, the very definition of unsportsmanlike conduct. 

In game five alone of the Ducks-Stars, where minimal contact in front of the net drew a Dallas interference penalty, but Marty Turco taking out a player along the boards did not.  Nor all the times the Ducks ran into Turco, or the slash of him (I believe by Corey Perry late in the second). 

Francois Beauchemin's hit on a Dallas forward in the middle of the game was exactly the same as Chris Pronger's against Detroit last year, pinning the back of his opponent's head to the boards.  That one earned Pronger a suspension.

All a reasonable person (this leaves out Mike Keenan) would ask is that the officiating be consistent--is that a penalty or not?  There are also a lot of rumblings about different crews calling games differently; while I did not peruse the entire 232 pages of the pdf file on league rules, I am willing to bet there is not one set of rules with Mick McGeough's crew and another with Kerry Fraser's.

Is there no crew in the NHL like Mike Carey's in the NFL, that can be trusted to call the game as it is defined, almost without fail? 

Guess not.