I wouldn't pay too much attention to the threads on the Hawks official boards. There are a large number of posters there these days that climbed onto the bandwagon within the last 6 months and their incessant bitching and moaning and their lack of game knowledge has driven many of the longtime fans to abandon the boards entirely (not that there aren't some knowledgeable fans in the new crop).
As a longtime Hawk Fan I can tell you that I have been pretty happy with this series. I am disappointed to see my team down 2-0, but few of the long-suffering fans expected this much from the Hawks this season. They have exceeded their goal and are gaining valuable experience against the best team in the league. While the officiating has been bad both ways, a continuation of the regular season, it hasn't impacted the games in this series. The young Hawks have given away many goals in this series on brain-farts that have little to do with their talent and everything to do with being less experienced and less focused. The Wings are just better right now than the Hawks at the overall game.
As long as the bad/missed calls GO BOTH WAYS it is hard to be upset. Consistency of suck is about the best you can hope for. I haven't noticed anything glaringly offensive either way, to be honest, and feel the series has been the best officiated of the three rounds we've been in. At least this series features two skilled teams playing hockey with a minimum of crap and no goonery, which is more than we could say for Calgary or Vancouver or you could say about Anaheim. Its nice to have a clean series where the teams actually play instead of trying to injure each other and where they stay classy rather than talk unwarranted crap to the media.
Good luck in the series...I'm sure the remainder will be just as entertaining as the beginning.
