Datsyerberger

This. It's not that I disagree with his suspension - I don't, he's had it coming and he knows he's had it coming (in fact, I'll bet he's probably laughing.. the suspension is bringing it more attention than it would have got alone, and that's what Avery does.. get attention. As long as he continues to get a contract/get paid by someone, he wins this one soundly.) It's just that 'sloppy seconds' is nothing compared to tons of worse things that get said on the ice that go unpenalized (where, by the way, hundreds, even thousands of people can sometimes hear them, children included). And that running/stomping on a guy with intent to injure draws a less notable suspension. Totally ridiculous. And yes, TSN's hypocrisy was/is facepalm worthy.

Haha, I love how this forum erupts more on Pronger getting nailed with a penalty than when the Wings get a goal XD

Owned. Friggin' ****** canoe.

I Lol'd. Oh hey, goal!

And sometimes it works... Think we'll have 2 goals by 70 shots?

..And not getting on the rebound when he does..

Point shots are nice and all when they get deflected and go in*, but can't we put some on goal from in the slot for once? * = Requires Tomas Holmstrom for reasonable rate of success.

Clock stopped with 13:37 on it. I sense epicness approaching.

I, for one, am entirely in agreement with you. The Ducks don't look at their best either, and that's what makes it even more irritating. The Wings inability to recover rebounds (on either end of the ice) most of this season has been driving me up the wall, especially.

Lol, an ad for some DVD of "Top 50 Sports Bloopers" What did they do, assemble a bunch of clips of post-lockout NHL officiating?

If we jumped on the juicy rebounds he's giving up we might.

Majority garbage shots from the point or terrible angles.. as has been a pattern..

Not really, the Bruins were playing better than the Ducks are now, but Detroit looks just as lazy/uninspired/unphysical/crappy/(something bad?)

I trust the telepathic powers granted to me by my alien head--I mean my eyes--to Dr. Rahmani.

It's like most of the team is playing to avoid any possibility of an injury.

Quick, someone help: What's more irritating, seeing the Wings failing to enter the zone without dumping it or failing to get in and play the body/boards once they've dumped it?

Is that all? I'm sorta surprised, thought their ES was even worse than that.. Wings have been living off of their PP.

Well, f*** a duck.

I left a lot of comments and hurrahs in the GDT thread

Key word in that post highlighted. I think that's one of the largest problems with officiating at the moment: assumptions. Ref thinks something might have happened, he calls it, rather than endure the criticism that comes along with not making a missed call. He doesn't get penalized either way, so he calls the penalty--something the league seems to favor at the moment. Someone drops a stick? Musta been slashed. Holmstrom near the net? Must be GI. Refs have a tough job, and I'm all for them going unpunished for tough/close calls.. sometimes you've just got to make the best judgement you can with the resources available. However, in cases such as that BUF/PIT one, some pay needs to be docked. Same goes for the O'Halloran/Homer 'ass' call. Let them know that calls made off of reputation and assumption won't be tolerated. The problem is, the NHL at the moment WON'T do this, because they want more goals, and giving more penalties (and thus, PPs) is the easiest and cheapest way to do so--as opposed to having to, ugh, change the rules, or worse, equipment sizes (be they goaltender equipment or the goals themselves). Edit: I should say that the conclusion of my statement above is not that the NHL is encouraging more penalties to be dealt out, but rather is tolerating the increased penalties that's coming about from deteriorating officiating because 1: it's ultimately help meeting a goal they want to begin with (more goals) and 2: fixing said problem would somehow cost money they don't want to spend, and furthermore they're saving money by fixing the goal related to 1. by letting it come about in a way that (for now) doesn't cost money. Typical shortsighted NHL leadership.

The problem is not whether the calls are legit or not. The vast majority of calls are (even if some of the hooking calls are really weak, they are technically penalties by the letter of the law.) The big problem is CONSISTENCY. Like, if the refs have had a relatively silent 1st and 2nd period, and then start dropping penalties on the winning team in the 3rd--ticky tacky stuff that's been going on all game and they haven't called. Or when the refs have had a very busy 1st and 2nd period (like last night's Wings game), and then swallow the whistles during the 3rd. Or when they're calling ticky tacky stuff on one team and missing large calls on another (ex. every other game with Pronger on the ice.) I'd say there are a handful of situations in which hockey fans in general tend to get suspicious: Reputation calls (ex. O'Halloran and Holmstrom) Close game, refs busy 1st and 2nd, quiet in 3rd (especially if less penalties would favor the losing team.) Close game, refs quiet 1st and 2nd, calling minor stuff all over the 3rd (especially if more penalties would benefit the losing team.) Game with a 2 goal or > differential, refs calling lots of ticky tacky penalties on the leading team. High scoring games with a back and forth lead (Ex 2-3 turns to 4-3 turns to 4-5) where penalties/PP goals have been directly relevant to the changes in lead. High scoring games where the majority of goal scoring is coming from PPs off of really ticky tacky penalties (barely there hooks, phantom trips and holds.) Bonus points to this one if its a VS game or a highly touted matchup. Oh, my personal favorite: Games where the zebras seem perfectly positioned to be in the way of the winning teams forecheck, and to deflect pucks around in their defensive zone. Oddly enough, these games seem to be accompanied with one of the above situations (I think this is directly relevant to refs that just have bad tendencies to be too involved in the game.)

I totally missed the penalty. Details anyone?

Huzzah! Mule!

Wow, the GDT is a LOT quieter when the Wings D isn't disastrous XD

Crunch.