Power play opportunities:
Game 1: Pittsburgh 5, Washington 2
Game 2: 5-5
Game 3: 7-2
Game 4: 6-4
Game 5: 2-2
Game 6: 5-4
Game 7: 4-0
In five of the seven games, Pittsburg had more power plays than Washington. In two, they had an equal amount. Interetingly, they split the two games 1-1. The other four went 3-2.
In total, Pittsburgh had 34 power play opportunities during the series; Washington had 19.
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In some of the games, the discrepancy might be justifiable. But over the entire series? Hardly. Let's talk about NHL officiating for a moment.
Adam Proteau, of the Hockey News:
The NHL continues (and will continue) to claim they care about the health of players like Ward. We should know by now this is simply untrue. And I will prove it with a series of scenes from this year’s playoffs, the place where, given the NHL’s odd logic in demarking the line between regular season and post-season suspensions, it must be true that every player’s head is even more precious this time of year.
First I will point to Mike Cammalleri drilling Martin Havlat square between the chops. Then I will reference Chris Kunitz cross-checking Simeon Varlamov in the neck. Then I will recall Mike Brown decimating Jiri Hudler, Ward getting creamed by Walker and Donald Brashear adding to his stellar resume by taking out Blair Betts of the Rangers.
Then I will tell them that only one of those situations resulted in a suspension.
Well, I’ll say, technically there were two suspensions, but the league rescinded one of them.
As a reminder, Brashear was the only one suspended. Scott Walker had his suspension rescinded.
All of those are fairly clear violations. Ironically, I think Brashear's hit on Betts was the most questionable, in the sense that I'm not at all convinced it was a penalty. I know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that had it been Milan Lucic who laid that hit on Betts instead of Brashear, the same people screaming about it now would be playing it in highlight reels and talking about what a fantastic player Lucic is.
On the other hand, only one of these violations led directly to a goal. In fact, Sidney Crosby scored his first career playoff hat trick on the play by Kunitz. After Kunitz cross-checked Varlamov, Crosby got the puck from behind the net and scored. Watch the cross-check here:
Notice the referee watching the play and ignoring it. The NHL's disciplinarians did the same.
All the penalties Proteau listed were shots or punches to the head. Another one went uncalled and doesn't even rate a mention here; in Game 3 of the Caps-Pens series, Evgeni Malkin punched Shaone Morrisonn in the head in the middle of play. The result? Obviously, no call. It was just as blatant a violation as the Kunitz cross-check, if not even more so.
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After Game 3, both Alex Ovechkin and coach Bruce Boudreau had something to say about the officiating, (source):
"They have only two penalties," Ovechkin said. "It's kind of a joke, I think."
Boudreau added: "As far as penalties go, I hope I never hear them complain about penalties again, picks, and everything else. I think we might have deserved the penalties, but they sure as hell deserved more than they got."
Boudreau is bang on the money here. Many of the penalties called on the Caps were justifiable; that's not the problem. The problem is watching the Caps get called and the Pens get away with exactly the same violations throughout the series.
In my opinion, it was impossible to watch that series and come away with the impression that the referees were calling the game fairly. I realize that it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but I can't dismiss the idea that the league wants Sidney Crosby, the anointed Messiah of hockey, in the finals so badly that it shows in the officiating. I'm not sure any other explanations make any more sense.
Be that as it may, the end result is clear. To me, the Capitals-Penguins series was conclusive proof that dismissed my last doubts. Officiating in the NHL is not fair; NHL referees are biased in favor of certain teams. The team they're most obviously biased in favor of is Pittsburgh.
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On a side note, it's going to be interesting watching the least penalized team in the regular season (Carolina) take on the referees' darling children (Pittsburgh).
In the first period of the first game, Mark Eaton got away with a blatant slewfoot that injured Tuomo Ruutu. Later that period, Marc-André Fleury threw his stick at the puck; no call. In the second, Erik Cole was skating toward the goal, Hal Gill next to him "lost his balance", and Fleury took a huge dive. Result: 2 minutes to Cole. In the third, Cole took a dirty hit below the knee from Matt Cooke and was injured. Again, no call. It's been pretty sickening again.
In 14 playoff games, only twice have the Penguins had less power plays than their opponent, and both those games were in the first round. In the conference semi-finals and finals, Pittsburgh has not once had less power plays than their opponents. Overall, in nine out of fourteen games, Pittsburgh has had more power play opportunities than their opponent.
It looks like the referees already decided who's going to the finals.
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