By The Meatriarchy
The Leafs managed to pull three points out of the back to back games this weekend although it technically should have been four.
The overtime goal that was called back in Carolina was not a goal - the puck had crossed the line just as the whistle went. However on the very same play the puck and the Carolina goalie's pad had indeed crossed the line. This one was missed by the officials and the Leafs went on to lose in a shootout.
The entire game was marred by poor officiating. Look, I love the new rules and if a Leaf puts a stick on a guy and gets called I am all for it. But if on the very next play a Leaf is tackled I expect that call to be made also. I am thinking of starting a running count of the number of penalties committed against the Leafs that aren't called.
There was some karmic retribution of a sort the next night when the refs correctly called a penalty late in the third period that carried over into the overtime allowing Sundin to score a record setting overtime goal.
The Canadiens were livid that a penalty should be called so late in the game but I for one have never subscribed to the "put the whistle away" theory.
So we move on to swampy Florida for a series of games against the Panthers and Lightning this week as well as one against Atlanta.
This should be a winnable road trip and anything less than four points would be a disappointment.
Following that we have a series of games against Western teams as San Jose, Dallas, Los Angeles and Anaheim show up at the hangar next week. Of those teams the Kings are the hottest but I am not surprised about that since their AHL team was very strong last year.
And then looming on the horizon. You know who....
Montreal complained a lot about that penalty being called. Not so much about it not being a penalty but because of previous penalties not being called. That's a fair argument as I have found refereeing to be anything but consistant this year. But if they are going to be upset they probably want to do it quietly because on of the non-calls directly led to Montreal's game tying goal. In the Toronto zone Tomas Plekanec and Jason Alison were both going for the puck. Allison was coming up beside Plekanec and Plekanec reach out and pushed him down to the ice. A clear interference penalty. Plekanec then passed the puck out to Ryder and free of Allison able to follow Ryder into the Leaf zone then taking the return pass and scoring the goal all while Allison, who would have been defending him, is getting up off his butt way back at the Leafs blue line. The Canadiens don't have much to complain about. They got a nice non-call there and the penalty late in the game was an obvious penalty.
ReplyDelete"I am thinking of starting a running count of the number of penalties committed against the Leafs that aren't called."
ReplyDeleteCount penalties the Leafers commit that aren't called as well - just for some form of perspective. I think you'll find the numbers are about even. The refs are usually uniformly brutal, but it's often easier to give 'em a break when it's your team getting away with the non-calls.