Calgary should have lost this game. Not because they didn’t put in a great road game–at 11AM to boot. Not because of some iffy unsportsmanlike call on Chris Pronger for pulling a ‘Sean Avery’ on Kipper. No, the Flames should have lost in the OT period when Jarome Iginla, when it was 3v3, literally lost his marbles and didn’t move an inch in the defensive zone. He CAUSED the loss in OT against Detroit and did it again today. If it wasn’t for an insane desperation paddle save Calgary would be losers.
Now back to the exciting conclusion of this afternoon’s game. All game I was wondering to myself:
Either this is a rookie ref or he got paid off
An incredible amount of soft calls were made, most against the Flames. Ghislain Hebert made the vast majority of the calls. He has under 20 NHL games of experience. I guess you have to start somewhere, but the difference between him Don VanMassenhoven was evident. If I did’nt know about his ‘rookies’ status I would’ve concluded cash changed hands, but then this call against Pronger happened in OT that called-back a goal.
Here’s what I mean.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec_2oKWe2Gw]
After Avery’s antics the league imposed a rule that you can’t screen the goalie:
“An unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty will be interpreted and applied to a situation when an offensive player positions himself facing the opposition goaltender and engages in actions such as waving his arms or stick in front of the goaltender’s face, for the purpose of improperly interfering with and/or distracting the goaltender as opposed to positioning himself to try to make a play,” Colin Campbell, said in a statement.
Bear in mind, this isn’t the official rule, just Campbell in the newspaper.
Pronger wasn’t exactly facing Kipper, but he did wave his arms to screen him.
That put the OT period to 3v3 and the Flames should have lost (see above). But instead we hit the shoot out and Calgary fared better than the NY game where they wen 0-3. Rene Bourque potted the winning shoot-out goal.
Calgary had a solid outing that included killing off six penalties. They rolled 4 lines and even Mikael Backlund turned in a great performance on the top line. Jokinen played on the third line, and had a few great chances, but still finished -2.
Calgary doesn’t have any time to rest, they’re in Pittsburgh tomorrow for another afternoon game. Another two points would be just what the doctor ordered for this team.
Pronger also lied in the postgame scrum saying he was directing traffic, not on the second time you douche bag.
A lucky bounce but we will take the two points.
With thirty shots on net, the Calgary Flames demonstrated some offensive effort. Cheers to Glencross for mastering the short handed tally, and Staois for tying the game at two. More importantly, congratulations to Hagman and Bourque for hitting the target in the shoot out win against Philly.
Great going guys…..Keep it up!