Monday Morning Musings With Me "The Big E:" Conspiracy Theorists Unite!

It's amazing how many Detroit Red Wings fans are crying foul. They are shouting conspiracy this and conspiracy that.

Blog entries like this one from Winging it in Mowtown are everywhere.

It was a game that featured all sorts of oddities: eight different Red Wings taking faceoffs as the linesmen were tossing players from the faceoff circle; a penalty shot to San Jose on a questionable hooking call that would rarely get called in almost any other situation, Marc-Edouard Vlasic going knee-on-knee with Valtteri FilppulaDouglas Murray elbow-to-head shot on Johan Franzen that drew no penalty just before the game-winning goal. In a moment that drew gasps for both players; and finally, a violent ending.

If anything, the sole reason the Red Wings were even close in this game was the spectacular performance by Jimmy Howard...

Comment like this one from Tim V are making their way around Bleacher Report as well...

Hey San Jose, maybe your MVP in that series with the Red Wings should be the refs. After all, they did have the most assists out of everyone on the ice. I just have one question for your team, does it make you feel good that it was pretty much a 10 on 6 for all the games? Now granite, this might have been the outcome at any rate but with all the extra help from the zebras, I think you would still be playing against the Red Wings right now! Admit it, the officiating was HORRIBLE!!!! The commish has a grudge with the Red Wings because he is sick of them winning the cup all the damn time and wants his puppet Crosby to be in the limelight. Something stinks like poo, and I am pretty sure I know what it is..........

Signed,

One pissed off Red Wings Fan

Red Wings fans though aren't the only fans crying foul during these 2010 NHL Playoffs. Montreal Canadiens fans have been crying conspiracy since the first round round against Washington as illustrated in this article posted by the Gazette.com                    

See, Gary Bettman wants Alexander Ovechkin in the Stanley Cup finals.The NHL president hates Canadian teams. In fact, he hates Canada and would rather soak up the rich tradition and redolent hockey atmosphere in Phoenix and Nashville. And Bettman will do anything in his considerable power to make sure American teams advance as far as possible in the playoffs. Consider the latest evidence of Bettman's perfidy: An explicable video review stops the Canadiens momentum after Andrei Kostitsyn scores to make it 4-1. Mike Knuble interferes with Jaro Halak on the goal that put the Capitals back in the game. L.A. wins after Vancouver is penalized for too many men in OT.

Coincidences?

I think not. Alex Kovalev was put on the DL because he knew too much.

Always remember: Paranoids have the facts, and just because you're paranoid doesn't mean the NHL isn't trying to screw you.

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo Sports eloquently pointed out a couple of flaws with this kind of thinking.

The main reason we've ridiculed the notion of a grand conspiracy against the Detroit Red Wings in the last few seasons is because it completely falls apart upon the application of elementary logic.

The Wings generate interest in the NHL. They generate ratings, which makes them a four-leaf clover in a league of weeds. They interest fans while two-dozen teams cause apathy. Their gear sells. They're a flagship, Original-Six franchise based in the U.S.

There is every reason to believe that the "conspiracy" or "bias" against Detroit is a series of painful coincidences connected, and amplified, by a minority of Red Wings fans who wear institutional scheming like a warm blanket to shelter them from Detroit's occasional failures as a team.

The officiating Sunday night was atrocious. It was unforgiveable. There have been a few instances in these playoffs in which the referees seemed as though they were getting paid by the ill-conceived penalty, and last night was one of them. Ten power plays for the San Jose Sharks in their 4-3 victory, and four for the Wings. It was an embarrassment.

But it was also an isolated situation. Coaches work the refs in every series and the refs respond. When Tomas Holmstrom starts getting hit with interference penalties, it isn't an edict from Gary Bettman, it's an official taking the opposing coach's words into consideration and acting on them.

 

As long as there are hockey fans, there will be conspiracey theories. I'm a Toronto Maple Leafs. Don't get me going about Kerry Fraser!

One of the best things about conspiracy theorists is they are usually very imaginative as is evident by the following You Tube Parodies.

Bettman/Crosby

Gary Bettman-No Goal!

There are others of course, if you look hard enough through thousands of blogs sites from every professional sport team there is. There will be a claim of a conspiracy some where.

The fact of the matter is, the San Jose Sharks were the better team both during the regular season and in the playoffs.