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Alex Burrows slams referee in post-game interview


Marshall

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Auger was party to that insane no-goal for the Detroit Red Wings earlier this year; had previously ejected Burrows on a controversial call last February; and, most infamously, was the referee who gave Shane Doan(notes) a 10-minute misconduct after a linesman accused him of making culturally insensitive comments to Auger, who is French-Canadian. Doan vehemently denied the charge. Plus, this pregame video (H/T Puck Buddy Goro) from the Canucks game is a smoking-gun when it comes to his pregame chat with Burrows

Via Greg's column

Who knows, maybe the ref just skated over to him to ask him about his day, maybe to issue him a generic warning about diving. I find it exceptionally hard to believe he is stupid enough to blatantly say "I'm going to get you back tonight" but he may have said something that hinted at it. It's not looking good for Auger (w/ apologies for misspelling his name all thread)

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A formal complaint gets it out in the media just as much as his postgame comments would. In fact, it may give Burrows more credibility that he officially presented his argument in a legal manner rather than just spouting off. I don't see how complaining to the media and getting a fine raises his chances more than just getting the word out to the media and avoiding a fine.

Isn't the whole point of a formal complaint that it gets handled internally between the NHLPA and the league behind closed doors? I can't recall any formal complaints that have gone public either during or after the investigation, but I could be wrong. Maybe their just hasn't been a case like this to compare too.

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Refs are going to make mistakes. They happen. If they tried to compensate for every mistake they made, that would lead to hundreds of unnecessary calls made every season. The game is much better off if the refs simply forget about mistakes they made and do their best to not make more in the future. It sucks when a call is blown against your team, but refs aren't perfect. They shouldn't feel obligated to make a bad call the other way to make up for it. I know it happens to some extent in all sports, but it's stupid. This incident is even more ridiculous because it's spanning over different games. There's no room in hockey for refs making stupid calls intentionally to make up for a mistake they made last season in order to "even it out".

True, and no one wants them to try to make up for every mistake made. But make-up calls happen. And in this instance, Burrows' dive in Nashville had a big impact ... a wrongful major and misconduct. This isn't a 2-minute tripping minor we're talking about here. If this were Devils-Rangers, Parise-Avery instead of Predators-Canucks, Smithson-Burrows, we'd all be hanging Auger posters on our walls.

I still say good for Auger. Ref of the Year. Diving is the absolute lamest thing in hockey, if not professional sports on the whole. What Auger did was punish a diver when they usually get away with their lamery. Very un-lame in my eyes. The only stupid thing he did was tell Burrows about it before the game.

Edited by DaneykoIsGod
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Isn't the whole point of a formal complaint that it gets handled internally between the NHLPA and the league behind closed doors? I can't recall any formal complaints that have gone public either during or after the investigation, but I could be wrong. Maybe their just hasn't been a case like this to compare too.

Sure, we know about the league investigating a lot of the free agent contracts from the past offseason and that's completely internal. Burrows would be allowed to say he was going to file a formal complaint against the referee and avoid fine, so even if we don't believe people find out about formal investigations by the league, which we know they do, Burrows could still announce his filing of the complaint which gets it out there.

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True, and no one wants them to try to make up for every mistake made. But make-up calls happen. And in this instance, Burrows' dive in Nashville had a big impact ... a wrongful major and misconduct. This isn't a 2-minute tripping minor we're talking about here. If this were Devils-Rangers, Parise-Avery instead of Predators-Canucks, Smithson-Burrows, we'd all be hanging Auger posters on our walls.

I still say good for Auger. Ref of the Year. Diving is the absolute lamest thing in hockey, if not professional sports on the whole. What Auger did was punish a diver when they usually get away with their lamery. Very un-lame in my eyes. The only stupid thing he did was tell Burrows about it before the game.

sorry, but this is silly. for one, refs already look the other way on avery all the time. that's the solution to that problem - you dive, great, good luck getting legitimate penalties called on you. meanwhile, we will call every legitimate penalty you commit. it makes absolutely no sense to call fouls the player didn't commit that seriously impact the game, in the fashion that auger appears to have done.

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sorry, but this is silly. for one, refs already look the other way on avery all the time. that's the solution to that problem - you dive, great, good luck getting legitimate penalties called on you. meanwhile, we will call every legitimate penalty you commit. it makes absolutely no sense to call fouls the player didn't commit that seriously impact the game, in the fashion that auger appears to have done.

Clarkson and Langs, to use Devils, get this treatment for being guys that go down easily/complain about not getting calls. The refs call everything they do and this also leads to them getting called for some BS penalties that the refs think they might have done when you can obviously see they didn't.

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sorry, but this is silly. for one, refs already look the other way on avery all the time. that's the solution to that problem - you dive, great, good luck getting legitimate penalties called on you. meanwhile, we will call every legitimate penalty you commit. it makes absolutely no sense to call fouls the player didn't commit that seriously impact the game, in the fashion that auger appears to have done.

Avery, and other "divers" for that matter, still draw plenty of penalties, so this notion that refs recognize divers and stop calling penalties they draw just isn't true. The simple fact is that there isn't much in the game right now to deter divers from diving. It rarely gets called, and when it does it's usually offset by the penalty it was intended to draw in the first place.

Is what Auger did perfect? No. Especially telling Burrows before the game. That was plain dumb. But it's something. And, again, if Burrows as much as thinks twice before diving while Auger is on the ice from now on, that's a big plus in my eyes.

Let me put it this way ... while both suck, I hate diving more than I hate make-up calls. If you disagree with that general statement, I think we're gonna disagree on this whole issue.

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Was it actually a dive in the other game, though, or are people taking Auger's word for it that he saw it as a dive in the replay? I don't think I've seen that play posted anywhere yet.

And even if it was a dive, Auger has no business trying to do make-up calls in a completely different game, even if it is the same opponents. It's bad enough that refs do it in the same game, they can't go carrying it over between contests.

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It's different when the make up call is in the same game. Not a totally different game.

+1

Well, it looks like the league again fails, fining Burrows $2,500 while apparently not going to investigate Auger. Per Puck Daddy.

For those of you waiting for another shoe to drop on this matter with regard to Auger, know this: The NHL tells us tonight that the matter is closed.

Burrows fined $2,500 for ref accusation: NHL says matter closed

Rowdy, it would help if we had a video of the original call to go by.

Edited by Derek21
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+1

Well, it looks like the league again fails, fining Burrows $2,500 while apparently not going to investigate Auger. Per Puck Daddy.

For those of you waiting for another shoe to drop on this matter with regard to Auger, know this: The NHL tells us tonight that the matter is closed.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Burrows-fined-2-500-for-ref-accusation-NHL-say?urn=nhl,213276&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Rowdy, it would help if we had a video of the original call to go by.

$2,500 is a joke. Might as well just fine him $0.01, it's an arbitrary amount anyway. I'm sure there wasn't much to investigate as far as this incident, because it doesn't seem like any other people heard the conversation before the game, but the league will hopefully keep this in mind if there are future issues with Auger.

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+1

Well, it looks like the league again fails, fining Burrows $2,500 while apparently not going to investigate Auger. Per Puck Daddy.

For those of you waiting for another shoe to drop on this matter with regard to Auger, know this: The NHL tells us tonight that the matter is closed.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Burrows-fined-2-500-for-ref-accusation-NHL-say?urn=nhl,213276&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Rowdy, it would help if we had a video of the original call to go by.

odd

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=AnKO9Qq7BiHaTacJvFtSk5d7vLYF?slug=ap-burrows-referee&prov=ap&type=lgns

TORONTO (AP)
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Rowdy, it would help if we had a video of the original call to go by.

If youre referring to what was called on Burrows, its in my previous post.

If youre referring to the original play in Nashville I think that the play in that game shouldnt be assigned any importance to future competitions.

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If youre referring to what was called on Burrows, its in my previous post.

If youre referring to the original play in Nashville I think that the play in that game shouldnt be assigned any importance to future competitions.

Okay Steve. I'll take a look later as I'm just too tired now.

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Rowdy, it would help if we had a video of the original call to go by.

Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at. ;)

If youre referring to the original play in Nashville I think that the play in that game shouldnt be assigned any importance to future competitions.

I completely agree. However, as it seems to play a role in the current situation, it would be helpful if we could see it. I'm sure there's a video out there, I'm just too lazy to hunt it down. :)

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Was it actually a dive in the other game, though, or are people taking Auger's word for it that he saw it as a dive in the replay? I don't think I've seen that play posted anywhere yet.

They showed the replay of Burrows' dive during intermission on Versus last night. From that one live-action replay it looked like the worst of it was Burrows pretending to be hurt afterwards (think Mike Ribiero), and that's probably what drew the major and misconduct on Smithson. But this line from the ESPN article on the matter sums it up:

Nashville's Jerred Smithson received a major and game misconduct penalty for charging Burrows in that game, but the call was later overturned by the league because it said Burrows took a dive.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=4822110

Not even open to interpretation. The league ruled that he dove.

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They showed the replay of Burrows' dive during intermission on Versus last night. From that one live-action replay it looked like the worst of it was Burrows pretending to be hurt afterwards (think Mike Ribiero), and that's probably what drew the major and misconduct on Smithson. But this line from the ESPN article on the matter sums it up:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=4822110

Not even open to interpretation. The league ruled that he dove.

'kay. Still, if the allegations surrounding Auger are true, he had no business even *thinking* about "retaliation", much less going through with it.

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'kay. Still, if the allegations surrounding Auger are true, he had no business even *thinking* about "retaliation", much less going through with it.

In a perfect world, refs would never have to make make-up calls. But this ain't a perfect world. The pre-game warning, if it's true, was a stupid move on Auger's part. But everything else he did strikes me as business-as-usual for NHL refs.

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In a perfect world, refs would never have to make make-up calls. But this ain't a perfect world. The pre-game warning, if it's true, was a stupid move on Auger's part. But everything else he did strikes me as business-as-usual for NHL refs.

Are you insane buddy?

Auger is a retard.

Burrows is the man as far as Im concerned.

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So this is interference?

You're right, I've never seen a winger picked off the faceoff before.

Was it an interference penalty? Probably not. Could it have looked like Burrows stuck his leg out to pick the winger ? Yes. Would Langenbrunner be subject to similar scrutiny on a play looking like that? Probably.

Did the ref have a personal vendetta against Parise on Sunday for blowing the play dead right before he scored or did the ref do the best he could based on what he could see and believe?

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Was it an interference penalty? Probably not. Could it have looked like Burrows stuck his leg out to pick the winger ? Yes. Would Langenbrunner be subject to similar scrutiny on a play looking like that? Probably.

Exactly.

It's all part of the game, and players who do the diving/embellishing/whatever know the set of risks and rewards that come with the territory. Reward: You draw extra power plays. Risk: You earn a reputation and draw just as many, if not more, penalty kills. Players do it to varying degrees and some are better at it than others, but pretty much all know to shut up and take their medicine when it's dished, not cry to the media like Burrows did.

But anyone focusing on the make-up calls is focusing on the wrong thing, IMO. Auger was wrong if he in fact did give Burrows a heads up that he'd be gunning for him. That's a given. But Burrows is wrong for diving in the first place and for whining to the media about it instead of taking appropriate actions through the NHLPA.

I'm sorry, but I'm just having trouble pointing more blame at Auger than Burrows for this whole mess. For the millionth time, if Burrows doesn't dive, this never becomes an issue.

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I'm sorry, but I'm just having trouble pointing more blame at Auger than Burrows for this whole mess. For the millionth time, if Burrows doesn't dive, this never becomes an issue.

I could be a lot more pointed/crass with this, but all I'm going to say is: Blame the victim? Really?

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I could be a lot more pointed/crass with this, but all I'm going to say is: Blame the victim? Really?

I didn't blame Jerred Smithson for anything. :noclue:

Sorry Rowdy, but anyone who thinks Burrows is a victim here comes off like a diving apologist to me. Burrows got what divers get. Again, the only thing Auger allegedly did wrong was warn him before the game.

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