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Why the NHL just doesn't get it


Eztarget

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Took this from a Flyers board but it sums up the state of this league and how clueless they really are. Game #3 of the Pens/Flyers was the buzz of the sports world. People outside of hockey were even talking about it. The NBC rating was one of the highest rated games (going head to head with the NBA as well) in the last 10 years ... and what does the NHL do for game #4? They assign probably one of the (if not the) worst referee's to work the game, Chris Lee:

HERE IS THE POST. This poster nails it, he's objective and doesn't just focus on penalties called against the Flyers. He points out how the officials RUINED the flow of the game for both teams. You could just tell the players had no idea HOW to play the game or what would or wouldn't be called. The 10-3 score itself was clearly affected by the officials.

Last night was one of those league scripted games ...

Now, let me make this abundantly clear........THE FLYERS DID NOT LOSE LAST NIGHT BECAUSE OF THE REFEREES. They played horrible hockey from start to finish and were outplayed by the Pens at every turn.

But let's take a closer look at what the league did last night:

1. Game 3 of the series was a violence filled game that was probably the most entertaining Flyers game in the past decade. Non-hockey fans were even starting to watch and raving about Sunday's games. The game drew record viewership ratings on NBC. The problem.....clearly, the league does not want that type of product on the ice.

2. Chris Lee, a referee consistently voted worst in the league by the players, is assigned by the league to work last night's game. Lee has been an NHL referee for 11 years and worked a grand total of 4 playoff games. Anyone who has ever seen him knows he thinks everyone in the building is there to see him call penalties. Clearly, the league told the two referees to call anything and everything going into the game.

The game starts and the penalty fest begins. Here is my breakdown of the calls:

1st period

Sullivan - high stick - probably legit but a bit ticky-tack. He got his stick up on Giroux in the middle of the ice.

Malkin - hooking - Horrible. A slight jab to Couturier off the face off that was nothing.

Coburn - holding - Horrible. A completely made up call.

Rinaldo - interference - Horrible. The puck was right at Engelland's feet when he hit him.

Kunitz - Interference - Horrible. The game was in the process of being ruined at this point, and since they called 2 penalties on the Flyers, it was even it up time.

Orpik - cross check - Horrible. He pushed Briere in the back with his stick and Danny acted like he had been shot by someone in the stands.

Cooke - high stick - Never saw it so I can't comment either way. Cooke went crazy so this was probably horrible as well.

Carle - interference - See Cooke penalty above

At the end of the first, there had been 8 minor penalties called and the entire game was being played with one of the teams shorthanded. There was maybe 1 legitimate call made. Also of note is Chris Lee watched Grossmann take a clear head shot from Kennedy right in front of him and called nothing. At this point, the game was in the process of being ruined, but you just hoped they would stop calling penalties.

No such luck.

2nd Period

Giroux - high stick - Horrible. Nobody on the ice had any clue what the penalty was or who it was on.

Grossmann - trip - Legit

Carle - holding the stick - Possibly the worst call of the night which is saying something. The Pens had the lead and the refs just kept giving them PP's at this point.

Read - roughing - Laughable. The game is now the Chris Lee show.

Park - interference - Horrible.Giroux fell more to avoid running into the crossbar than anything Park did.

Flyers - too many men to offset the interference call - Call made after a 5 minute delay to discuss. No replays ever shown. Who knows.

Rinaldo - cross check - Borderline but understandable given the score

Rinaldo - rough- Legit

Rinaldo - 10 minute misconduct, game misconduct - Just making things up at this point. I've watched hockey for about 28 years and never saw a guy get tossed for a double minor

At this point I exited the Wells Fargo Center and that was the last action I saw. No clue what happened in the 3rd period.

In summary, Lee and McCauley called 16 minor penalties in the first 2 periods..........a chance for 32 minutes of special teams hockey out of 40 minutes played (80% of the game). The first two periods featured more minor penalties called than both of the first two games combined (16 vs 10), and nearly as many calls as the first 3 games combined (16 vs 18 when you disregard the matching minors in game 3).

Clearly, after the giant success that game 3 was in selling the sport and actually getting people to watch, the league did everything in their power to end that immediately.

And just to be clear (and I think people here understand this), I would feel the exact same way if the Flyers had won 10-3 rather than the Pens. That game was a travesty manipulated and created by the referees and the NHL.

And to make all matters worse Chris Lee missed the most obvious flying elbow by Malkin (should be suspended but he's a "star") in the first period:

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lol that guy needs to watch the game again. The Kunitz, Orpik, Cooke, Read, and Rinaldo calls were all legitimate. Rinaldo absolutely should have been tossed from the game and he should be suspended but he won't be. I didn't even see the whole game - was flipping between this and the Senators game - but guys were not keeping their sticks down, and when the score got out of hand, the Flyers, as usual, started taking runs at guys. Rinaldo is a disgrace to the game so I expect the Flyers to employ him for many years.

Edited by Triumph
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lol that guy needs to watch the game again. The Kunitz, Orpik, Cooke, Read, and Rinaldo calls were all legitimate. Rinaldo absolutely should have been tossed from the game and he should be suspended but he won't be. I didn't even see the whole game - was flipping between this and the Senators game - but guys were not keeping their sticks down, and when the score got out of hand, the Flyers, as usual, started taking runs at guys. Rinaldo is a disgrace to the game so I expect the Flyers to employ him for many years.

So you admit you didn't watch it all but we were taking runs ... okay.

Just put your hatred of the Flyers aside for a minute and rethink things. His post was DEAD on as to why the NHL is clueless and less about the teams involved. The game could have been between Winnipeg and Calgary it doesn't really matter the point is the league doesn't understand what the fans want and their arrogance to not realize that is going to destroy this league.

So Rinaldo should be tossed for a double minor? Right. Even the guys on NBC were calling out the officials for not letting them play. If you don't see that then I guess you never will. I for one would rather have the days of clutch and grab then watch 80% of a game played on special teams.

And talking about taking runs ... did you watch the video I posted at the bottom. Malkin clearly throws a cheap elbow into Grossmann's head and nothing is called and the league doesn't even seem to care because of "who" it was.

Edited by Eztarget
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So you admit you didn't watch it all but we were taking runs ... okay.

I watched that part of the game, where Read went at someone's head.

So Rinaldo should be tossed for a double minor? Right. Even the guys on NBC were calling out the officials for not letting them play. If you don't see that then I guess you never will. I for one would rather have the days of clutch and grab then watch 80% of a game played on special teams.

Rinaldo went into the corner with Michalek. He cross-checked him. Then he tried to throw an elbow at him - he missed. Then he pushed him over. He should have been tossed, the guy had no interest in playing hockey, I'm sorry your 3rd period was ruined and you couldn't chant 'refs you suck' when Rinaldo got inevitably got tossed for trying to hurt or cheap shot another player.

And talking about taking runs ... did you watch the video I posted at the bottom. Malkin clearly throws a cheap elbow into Grossmann's head and nothing is called and the league doesn't even seem to care because of "who" it was.

I didn't see that play but I heard it was dirty. And yes, the league has been real kind to the Penguins, it's only suspended 3 of them.

Edited by Triumph
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So that's "Why the NHL just doesn't get it,"? I have to admit I thought this would be a thread about what the NHL is doing wrong for the game, not one referee. And as far as that fan being unbiased, the way I read that was, "let me be even in discussing all the regular calls so I can still blow up at the Rinaldo misconduct and seem fair." He must have watched very little hockey in that 28 years of watching it, maybe a game in year 1 and year 28? Rinaldo crosschecked the guy repeatedly even after the referee's arm goes up and even as the player is on the ice. And he did what he did it when his team was down by 6 goals. Any referee throws that guy out of the game.

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Ehh, I gotta stick up for the guy here. Let's not fool ourselves with this double standard I hear in this thread. We've been complaining all series long about the Refs calling the Devils for silly penalties. We can't come out and say then it's okay for us to complain about the over-penalizing of the Devils and not the Flyers/Pens game. The opinion this fan is voicing is that in an effort to curb the violence, the NHL has over-reached and is clearly out of touch with what many fans like and that's its brutality. The casual non-hockey fan will probably say that the most they know about hockey is that it's violent. The NHL, in its overreach is trying to take the grit out of the game and just make it about scoring, which hockey is not all about scoring(see Bobby Holik). We as Devils fans should be the first to know that. Scott Stevens wasn't exactly known for his scoring prowess. I watched the Pens/Flyers game last night and it was pretty boring because the calls watered down the flow of the game.

I recall someone said either on chat or on here that the Flyers would win the series because Pittsburgh doesn't have the edge that the Flyers have to their game. I clearly saw a game with no edge last night. That's why I stopped watching basketball because everything is a foul. The NHL is doing this to hockey with its overreaction.

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Ehh, I gotta stick up for the guy here. Let's not fool ourselves with this double standard I hear in this thread. We've been complaining all series long about the Refs calling the Devils for silly penalties. We can't come out and say then it's okay for us to complain about the over-penalizing of the Devils and not the Flyers/Pens game. The opinion this fan is voicing is that in an effort to curb the violence, the NHL has over-reached and is clearly out of touch with what many fans like and that's its brutality. The casual non-hockey fan will probably say that the most they know about hockey is that it's violent. The NHL, in its overreach is trying to take the grit out of the game and just make it about scoring, which hockey is not all about scoring(see Bobby Holik). We as Devils fans should be the first to know that. Scott Stevens wasn't exactly known for his scoring prowess. I watched the Pens/Flyers game last night and it was pretty boring because the calls watered down the flow of the game.

I recall someone said either on chat or on here that the Flyers would win the series because Pittsburgh doesn't have the edge that the Flyers have to their game. I clearly saw a game with no edge last night. That's why I stopped watching basketball because everything is a foul. The NHL is doing this to hockey with its overreaction.

Thank you. This was my whole point, and why I said it really didn't matter what teams it was. If the game was the Devils vs Rangers I as a Flyers (and hockey fan) would have turned it off. I watch hockey for the players, the battles, the hitting, the grit. I don't watch it to see Chris Lee. How many times have you watched a game where all the ticky tacky stuff is let go and you didn't even realize there was a ref. Those are always the best games. When you play 80% on special teams it just ruins the flow of the game.

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