Test refs must get the South Florida and South California games because nobody in those two States watch hockey. A half filled arena were on hand to watch what was easily the worst officiated game of the young season, and one of recent memory. This wasn’t a case of one sided officiating, this was a case of horrible call after horrible call for both teams. Embellishments won the day. Felt a hook? Throw yourself on the ice and get a call. Shed tears of a ‘butt end’ and you get a five minute major. Pretend to be hurt, get a quick whistle at the most crucial part of the game (a total an utter violation of NHL rules). Call a Selanne slashing penalty that lead directly to the GWG? Nah.
But with straighter refs would that have helped Calgary win their first game in Anaheim since 2007? Probably not. This was the team fans expected at the start of the year. It doesn’t help they’re missing 3 vets and their special teams are abysmal. No, Calgary was behind and outclassed in most ways, but even then, they still put up a fight and made for an interesting game which is more than what most can expect.
When you delete lopsided officiating you got a game where Calgary was essentially out-classed on every shift, yet found ways to tile the ice in their favour. They had a number of great chances but ran into steady goaltending by Fasth. Joey MacDonald got his 5th straight start and was mediocre. We can expect Ramo in net for the next game.
The Monahan watch continues. He was playing 4th line minutes late in the third as Calgary desperately tried to find ways to win a draw. The worst man on the dot apart from Monahan was Backlund who can’t wint a draw to save his life. Back to Monahan, he was invisible, which is to be expected, but does add fodder to the group that would like him go back to junior. If anything, he’d stay up to improve much faster than in junior, but Calgary would save a year on his entry level contract for a year that is essentially pointless. The emergence of Joe Colbourne playing some big minutes late might make that decision harder.
All in all, a so so game. Smith in for Butler for sure. Hardest working Flame to Baertschi. Glencross a terrible -3 in a night he took off.
You call it officiating? Never heard of butt ending penalties; but where the Calgary Flames are concerned, everything becomes legal save for Colborne’s goal that could have changed the outcome of the game. Conspicuously, the refs could have made the Flames victorious, but blame the media for playing a crucial role in accentuating the statistics….negativity breeds negativity.
In closing, despite being outplayed, the Flames demonstrated a lot of grit in the third with their offensive stride making the game more interesting than ever. The shorthanded marker by Stempniak and the Flames’s penalty killing efforts were noteworthy. Preventing the opponents from scoring the empty netter had been a supplementary plus! Cheers to the Flames for a good game!