221 replies to this topic

[VM1138]

Someone with hockey knowledge would recognize the fact that the reffing was one-sided. It wasn't like the Wings lost their cool and deserved all these penalties. THey didn't self destruct like the Sharks did in Game 4. They were very clearly questionable penalties and non-calls at crucial junctures that ended up deciding games. This is a problem no matter what team suffered as a result.

[GMRwings1983]

Pathetic is the Sharks playoff history.

They won't win the next series anyway, so at the end of the year, the season will be a disappointment to you too.

No way they get unfair PP advantages against the Hawks like they did against us.

[esteef]

The reffing definitely controlled this series. Despite the Wings playing sub-par for a lot of it, almost all of the game winning goals came off of terrible calls (5 on 3s) or non-calls. It's hard not to blame reffing when you take away those repeated blatant terrible calls and non-calls and see how different the series would look.]

What I think is impressive is that despite playing on the PK for most of the series the Wings did as well as they did. So yeah, I'm ready to blame the reffing for the overall series, if not every single game. It's frustrating because the Wings could've had this series in the bag despite their sub-par play, which to me indicates San Jose is not the better team.

Agree, the Wings weren't firing on all cylinders but we still hung with the Sharks. The thing that tipped the scale for them time and time again at key moments in games were the refs.

esteef

[jeff48109]

what kills me is that people are saying how the wings didn't challenge the sharks in the series since it was over in 5. we didn't deserve to win the series but it wasn't as if because the sharks were terribly impressive. the 4 games they won were by 1 goal and it seems all the tying or winning goals came from a bad call (Seto diving), bad missed call (headshot to Franzen) or bad break (Lidstrom's broken stick). The blackhawks look way more impressive, and will probably give SJ a beatdown

[Red Wings 2010]

The refs def. helped out SJ, sure we lost and everything but hopefully SJ knows they won bc of the refs. I know some RW players know this!

[high_stick69]

You have to expect the Sharks trolls to come out of the woodwork. They actually won a playoff series for once. We'll see how they sound after getting bounced. They act like they won the cup, but have won nothing, and it will stay that way. To barely squeak by a Red Wings team with a rookie goalie that barely made the playoffs with help from the zebras is nothing to be proud of.

[Mitchmac33]

Idk if this is in any other thread or anything, but my favorite call of the series is the penalty shot last night for pavelski, what a joke, just like the rest of the officiating in the series. But yes, the Wings lost it for themselves.

[Octopus's Garden]

You know what's awesome? That the Sharks have such a pathetic history that instead of spending this time celebrating their team's win or talking with Sharks fans about the next round, their fans have to find a Red Wings forum to hang out in.

[SDavis35]

I think the NHL needs to look at its rulebook and consider some changes for the coming years.

1. Allow players to kick the puck in. i know this could start some controversy but I see nothing wrong with a player whose stick is tied up, kicking a puck in while being defended.

2. Stop protecting the goalies. Make some rule that a goalie is fair game outside his goal crease. Im not saying forwards should be allowed to drill the goalie. There are plenty of times where guys screening the goalie get called for interference because the goalie is so far out and actually into the play.

3. Call more diving penalties. I was watching Don Cherry the other night and he focused of Carcillo from Philly and how he was falling over at the slightest pushes and flung his head back like he'd been high sticked when the opponents stick was nowhere near him. It comprimises the integrety of the game.

....just my 2 cents.

1. Allow players to use a kicking motion so long as their skate is not separate from the ice. Rule would state: If a player lifts his skate to redirect a puck in, the goal is disallowed.

2. Open the crease a little more, keep the blue paint the same, but use the trapezoid as a "safe zone" for goalies and connect it to the crease. (Not sure if i'm describing this well enough) Where the angled lines of the trapezoid are, connect them to the top of the blue paint, and that becomes the new "crease". Might look ugly though... either way, if a goalie is outside that trapezoid/crease area then he is no longer susceptible to goalie interference.

3. I think Aaron Ward said it on TSN, but call the games tighter. None of the chincy stuff and actually slow down a player on a hook. If a guy falls down, there shouldn't be a penalty on the play unless he was torn down (like stuart did to one guy this year). if you keep calling these feather penalties the players will keep diving.

Just my opinion on those factors.

[Barrie]

They were talking on the radio all week on the FAN590 in Toronto about the officiating being horrible over all, not just in the Wings-Sharks series.

I don't like to blame the refs, but the Sharks were handed this series, Game 2 especially was a complete joke!

[CrimsonFlame]

The NHL is going to turn into the NBA in a few years. Like 2 or 3. The officiating is terrible. Like someone said earlier, when a beer league hockey team has better officiating then the NHL, you know there's a problem.

I don't think there's a grand conspiracy against the Wings, I think the refs are just god damn terrible. They miss blatant stuff, call stuff that isn't there, don't call penalties that are supposed to be automatic (knee to knee anyone?), and to top it all off, are protected like they are god's prophets to hockey. The problem will never be fixed until the league buckles down and calls out the bad refs and allows them to be called out by the players/organizations. I mean really, a 10k fine for saying the Ref's sucked? That's insane, and maybe unconstitutional.

The NHL is in a downward spiral into the joke of a league the NBA is, where you will not win unless you have a superstar, let alone get any fouls called for you. Besides the fact it's always the same 3 or 4 teams vying for the top, everyone else isn't competition at all. Maybe it's this way because the NHL thought picking up a former NBA commissioner (who resigned in point-fixing and reffing scandal) to be their commissioner?

I don't mean to rant, but the reffing this series really disgusted me. I came close to not even watching game 3 just because I was so upset. Why would I want to watch a game where my team doesn't have a fair chance to win? I'm definitely not watching any other games this year. The Refs aren't supposed to decide games ever. They are supposed to make sure one team doesn't cheat and that the game is fair.

[Barrie]

You have to expect the Sharks trolls to come out of the woodwork. They actually won a playoff series for once. We'll see how they sound after getting bounced. They act like they won the cup, but have won nothing, and it will stay that way. To barely squeak by a Red Wings team with a rookie goalie that barely made the playoffs with help from the zebras is nothing to be proud of.

For them getting to the 3rd round is like winning the Stanley Cup!

[bdavis]

First thing I am going to say is the reffing was atrocious (should be complained about). I'm sorry, but officiating did cost the Wings game 2. Anyway, I found this video on the net and it made me sick:



Wings might have had more confidence in the series had they won game 2. Calls were definitely in SJ favor all series. At times, I agree, SJ did outplay the Wings. This would've been a different series though if the zebras called it fair (more even).

Edited by bd2988, 09 May 2010 - 12:22 PM.

[DirtyD]

First thing I am going to say is the reffing was atrocious (should be complained about). I'm sorry, but officiating did cost the Wings game 2. Anyway, I found this video on the net and it made me sick:

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Wings might have had more confidence in the series had they won game 2. Calls were definitely in SJ favor all series. At times, I agree, SJ did outplay the Wings. This would've been a different series though if the zebras called it fair (more even).

Words cannot describe how angry it makes me to see that clip again. Despite - and likely because of - Bertuzzi's unfortunate tendency to take stupid, offensive-zone penalties, I'd say that he got boned more than anyone else in the series.

[h2obury]

After all the talk about hits to the head during the regular season and how they were going to crack down on them it just makes the missed call on Franzen that much worse and the fact that it led directly to the game winning and series clinching goal just leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

[Paolino99]

Okay gang,

I've been reading a lot of comments about how the Wings truly lost this series through their inability to win faceoffs, their terrible defensive zone turnovers, and their inability to get to the dirty areas to score goals. I agree 100% with this assessment. The Wings were not even near their best for 4 of the 5 games in this series and, as such, their losses COULD simply be chalked up to that.

However, to nullify the refs of any responsibility in the outcome of this series because of the fact that the Wings were not playing as well as they should seems to me to be simply insufficient. In fact, I would say that such a claim does a disservice to the game of hockey in general. The fact of the matter is that the Wings lost all four of their games in this series by one goal, and in three of the four games the refereeing had a direct influence on the end results.

For me, tonight was the most painful example of this. A disgustingly obvious interference penalty on Murray was missed about 20 seconds prior to the eventual game winning goal. We can all argue that it was Rafalski's fault for coughing the puck up behind the net as he seemed to do far too often throughout the year; AND IT WAS. However, that does not excuse the FACT that the faceoff should have been at the other end of the rink and that the Wings should have had a man advantage.

Do I think that the Wings would have scored on that powerplay? Probably not. The powerplay was incredibly weak tonight and that was another reason that we lost. But this game, like the entire series, was decided by inches and, like every other close game in this series, the opportunities that the Sharks capitalized upon were provided to them by the referees. The Wings sloppy play was the killer, but I will am infuriated that the refs gave the Sharks far too much to run on.

Now, at this point I realize that I sound like a sore loser, and I'm sure that there are some on this board who will write me off as just that. By no means am I a conspiracy theorist; I am not deluded enough to think that the league was hellbent on keeping the Wings out of their fourth straight conference finals. I have watched enough hockey this season to realize that the refereeing in this entire league is pathetic. Standards change from game to game (or period to period) and calls are made and missed on the excuse that, "It's such a fast game". Refs are never held accountable for their terrible calls and no improvements are made for the betterment of the NHL experience. This phenomenon is not confined to a single team or conference, but rather serves to degrade the reputation of the league as a whole.

Unfortunately, in this series, the NHL's terrible refereeing was against the Wings far more than it was for them. While I realize that it is simply an unfortunate coincidence, I think that it is reasonable for us to be disappointed/mad. I have known a number of die-hard hockey fans to stop watching games because the refereeing simply reduced the sport to near-WWE levels, and I am now on the verge of doing so myself. I sincerely hope that this is a series that is watched over and over again as a tutorial of how NOT to ref in the playoffs so that a series like this is never duplicated in the future.

PS - I know that there have been a number of awesome, insightful Sharks fans posting on this board throughout the series, and I would really appreciate hearing your input. In the end, the Sharks certainly played well; as much as it pains me to say it, guys like Thornton and Marleau actually carried their weight. I try to be as unbiased as I can in looking at such issues, and I hope that was reflected in this post.

Great Post!!! this season was not amazing for us but the refereeing was terrible all the season long

[mjtm77]

Dont get how we gety called for that crap and they get away with a late hit to the head

[jeff48109]

After all the talk about hits to the head during the regular season and how they were going to crack down on them it just makes the missed call on Franzen that much worse and the fact that it led directly to the game winning and series clinching goal just leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

and they decide to crack down on too many men on the ice and goalie interference I guess hits to the head is a less serious issue

[scottj]

Words cannot describe how angry it makes me to see that clip again. Despite - and likely because of - Bertuzzi's unfortunate tendency to take stupid, offensive-zone penalties, I'd say that he got boned more than anyone else in the series.

dude, he gets boned more than anyone else for phantom s*** than anyone else pretty much all season lol

[Firehawk]

The bad calls and bad non-calls all seemed to go SJ's way. Sure they got some bad calls against them as well, but they did not set up 5 on 3's for detroit when it mattered. At worst, it canceled out their PP. The bad refing coupled with the Wings not winning the faceoffs in their zone killed them.

The chance of scoring on a 5 on 3 is 75%, which is almost like GIVING a team a goal. How can you do that in tied games or 1 goal games in the playoffs? Shy of a mugging, it should not happen. I'm sorry. At the same time, we did not win the key faceoffs and it killed us. Last night the first goal was right after a faceoff win for SJ in our zone. The second goal was the result of a non-call on Murray, which I don't haev a clue how that was missed. I wonder if the league will review that hit and suspend Murray for the first game of the 3rd round.