Click for larger. The puck is at least 1/8 an inch over the line! It should be clear from this picture and everyone that is not blind that this is a goal. The puck was knocked into the net by Kimmo Timonen for the Flyers goal to bring them within 1 in the 3rd period of what was before a 2-0 hockey game. Yet after looking at it for over 5 minutes, the league concluded that the puck was not over the line. Click for larger and clearer if you must.
Though that was not the only crime by NHL referees against the Flyers. Consider this incident, while ignoring the idiotic commentary of from Garry Galley who would not know textbook boarding if right above the boarding there was a huge neon sign saying "THIS IS WHAT BOARDING LOOKS LIKE, RECOGNIZE IT YOU DUMB TWIT"
Is there any intelligent hockey fan that can tell you that that was not boarding. And to Galley's point that you can't trust a guy not to hit you, well, you can't trust that, but you should be able to trust that someone is not going to send you flying 4 feet headfirst into the boards, that's for sure. And for the ignorant dingbats who think that Gagne may have embellished.......this is a man that has had 3 concussions in his career. Why would he send himself flying head first into the boards like that???
All in all, that was not called, but 5 minutes for fighting in Gagne were. Oh, and 2 minutes for Gagne for instigating. And another 2 for something about instigating with a face shield. And a 10-minute misconduct. What did Volchenkov get? 2 minutes for roughing for that scrum. And I am not even going to blame Gagne. The refs missed a blatant elbow call earlier in the game by Volchenkov on Carcillo. It had become quite clear that the referees were in no business to call penalties on dirty plays by Senators and seeing as they were not going to stand up for him, Gagne had no choice but to stand up for himself. And I don't even care that he got penalized, he absolutely did the right thing by going after Volchenkov. It resulted in a 7-minute PP for Ottawa (which Philly killed all of, by the way) but I could not be happier for him. It's about time someone on this team stuck up for themselves and it's about damn time we saw some damned emotion out of a team lacking it. They did not convert it, they did not win the game, but if the NHL and the referees are not going to stand up for Simon Gagne, then he had every right to go after Volchenkov like that. And I applaud him for it.
You can call me a whiny Flyers fan all day long and delusionaly discredit everything I am saying because of that, but does any of that change what is so painfully obvious? Can you see for yourselves that the puck was across the line in that picture? Can you see for yourselves the textbook boarding job that Volchenkov did on Gagne? And look, I am not even saying the Flyers would have won that game if not for the refs. They played an inconsistent game and failed to convert on the PP opportunities they did have, but were they given a fair shake in this game? Absolutely not. Do hockey fans in general deserve better than this? Yes they do.
In his game recap at Broad Street Hockey, Geoff Detwiler summed it up the best.
Any casual fan watching this game must have been left asking what is wrong with the NHL. The answer is that games like this are all too common. Before getting all "The NHL hates Philadelphia", know that these sorts of things happen everywhere. Detroit has had some of the most ridiculous calls go against them, and they've surely lost count. Matt Cooke goes unsuspended. Hell, Mike Richards didn't get suspended. Alex Ovechkin is constantly in the middle of these debates. It isn't anything against Philadelphia. It's the NHL.
Update: If you want to watch the highlights of the game which include what the waved off Timonen goal looked like, you can watch the highlights here. That play starts at the 6 minute and 48 second mark. For you curiousity seekers who want to know how Jim Jackson, Bill Clement, and Steve Coates reacted to the Gagne hit, fast forward go to the 4 minute, 25 second mark.
This is my problem with video replay(other than timing issues)in all sports. Sure, that puck looks like it's over the line, but I don't see definitive proof one way or the other. And since it has to be clear and indisputable evidence, then the no call has to stand.
ReplyDeleteHowever, they should at least allow the refs to go the replay and call the penalty on that guy scooping the puck out w/ his hand. Did they bring in the refs from Spokane to work this game?
There is white on all sides of the puck, and at least 1/8" of it to the right of it, where the goal line is. If that does not scream conclusive evidence of a goal, then I don't know what does.
ReplyDeleteI will say that this is 10 times clearer if you watch the video of it and the zoomed out overhead shot of it. However, it was not slow enough where I could pause it and get the exact screen shot that I wanted. This was from a still image presented on the broadcast and in the highlights video.
Volchnkov (yes, Volchenkov again) sweeping the puck out of the net is not a reviewable part of the play. The refs did not call it at first and thus it would forever remain uncalled. If the refs did blow the whistle on Volchenkov, then it would have been a penalty shot for Kimmo Timonen.