The Minnesota Wild was robbed of their deserved victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night. Hockey officials from the NHL made bad call after bad call.
This game was one of the worst displays of NHL officiating in the history of the league. It was an embarrassment to the NHL. It was a black eye on the NHL. The only fans that seem to think that the game ended in fair fashion are those fans from the state of Colorado.
When Matte Cooke took Tyson Barrie out of the game with a dirty knee to knee hit in game two, there were a few fans who thought that Cooke’s hit wasn’t dirty. Most fans, even Wild fans thought that he should be suspended. Now fast forward to tonight’s game. Very few Avalanche fans will admit that these hockey officials were incompetent.
Avalanche Fans Comeback
Avalanche fans on Twitter and around the web defended the officials tonight. They will tell you that Landenskoog’s penalty for his snowing (skate sending snow) of Minnesota Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper’s face was a bad call.
I recommend that Avalanche fans look at the NHL rule book to see that that a penalty will get called every time. It involves a goalie and goalies are protected. As much as the officials might not have wanted to call the penalty they had to.
I know that its painful for Avalanche fans to admit that their team should have lost and that it was the officials that ensured that Colorado would get a bogus victory on Saturday but if it was my team that won the game that way, I wouldn’t think that it was fair. I would have the coconuts to admit that it wasn’t fair.
The officials made terrible calls all night long. It started with a call on Minnesota Wild player Mikael Granlund for goalie interference. Granlund didn’t even touch Semyon Varlamov.
Brutal Sequence of Non-Calls Lead to Avalanche Equalizer
I told my wife after the Wild took the lead in the third period that the officials would find a way to try end ensure that Colorado would win the game. I was proven correct. With a little over one minute left in the third period, Minnesota’s Charlie Coyle was skating towards the Colorado zone, he was about to attempt to shoot the puck into the open net, when an Avalanche player held him (obvious penalty). No call was made.
Then the puck was played up ice with two Avalanche players skating into the Wild zone. P.A Parentau would score the equalizer but the video above shows that Colorado player Paul Statsny was offside on the play. One missed call was pathetic enough but two missed calls within ten seconds? That is terrible.
I think that those officials should be fired. They were either incompetent or were cheating. I would hate to think that an NHL official would cheat. So now I’m left to believe that these NHL officials weren’t good enough to even officiate your child’s hockey game. They were terrible. They were brutal Saturday.
It doesn’t matter now that the Avalanche won a game that they had no business winning and that it was due to terrible calls and non-calls by the officials but this game is in the books. The only justice for the Wild would be for them to win the next two games and win the series in Colorado. That would be justice and it wouldl be wonderful see frowns on Avalanche fans faces.
weak blaming the officials on a loss.
Not weak. Reality. Good try trying to defend incompetency by the Colorado National Hockey League officials.
Mirtau, Stop spamming! Stop posting the same exact comment multiple times!
100% agree with entire article
Thanks Dann.
“When Matte Cooke took Tyson Barrie out of the game with a dirty knee to knee hit in game two, there were a few fans who thought that Cooke’s hit wasn’t dirty. Most fans, even Wild fans thought that he should be suspended. Now fast forward to tonight’s game. Very few Avalanche fans will admit that these hockey officials were incompetent.”
There’s also a lot of Wild fans that are happy to take a 2 minute penalty in exchange for the Avalanche’s best defenseman. And most Avalanche fans agree that the calls have been bad on both sides. This piece is a hatred-fueled, entitled, childish tantrum.
Cristas said ” There’s also a lot of Wild fans that are happy to take a 2 minute penalty in exchange for the Avalanche’s best defenseman. And most Avalanche fans agree that the calls have been bad on both sides. This piece is a hatred-fueled, entitled, childish tantrum.”
That is a load of nonsense. That is a silly and uneducated comment. Where do you get your stats from? The Denver Post?
I know no Minnesota Wild fan that wanted your player to be hurt. The media in town came down hard on Cooke.
I can admit that the calls have been bad for both teams but that sequence of non-calls determined the game. Why can’t Avs fans admit that? At least Wild fans can admit when a call is bad. Then again this Minnesota is the State of Hockey.
For the last 10 minutes of the game they sat back. This means they got the puck and threw it away and waited for the Avs to bring it back. I am not saying that they needed to play in “attack mode” but they needed to be aggressive and not just get the puck deep, but keep it deep with a forecheck. Look at the powerplay they got with 5 minutes left. That was more in their end, than in the Avs end. Rather then keeping the pressure on the Avs and continuing to wear them down, they let them off the hook and allowed them to regain energy and momentum. The best two chances on that powerplay were by the Avs. The Wild are not capable of keeping the Avs from scoring for a 10 minute period without being aggressive and heavily forechecking. Sitting back and trying to survive waves of attacks against he Avs is playing with fire. It cost them two games already.
Father, hockey games go in waves. the Wild exerted a ton of energy at the start of the 3rd period to get the equalizer and then the go ahead goal. It’s much harder on the road to keep that type of energy for 60 minutes, especially against a team like Colorado.
You forget that in game 3, the Wild were burned by fast break goals because they were forchecking and lost the puck.
Colorado was taking chances and if the Wild had done what you say, there is a great chance that they would have scored on a counter attack.
Colorado had the crowd behind them and we know it gave them tons of energy, like when the Wild were at home. It’s amazing, both teams play to the crowd and game 5 wasn’t any different. Patrick Roy is a schemer and I’m sure he had an answer if the Wild took too many chances.
The Wild sat back on their one goal lead as soon as they got it. There is a difference between sitting back on a lead and playing conservative. They continually chipped the puck out of their end and letting the Avs right back on that attack. They needed to have enough confidence in themselves to continue playing the way that had been and not allowing the Avs to get back into it. When you allow a team like the Avs to not have to defend they will kill you. They did it in game #1, and the did it in game #5. I like Mike Yeo as a coach – I think he is a really good coach, but the way they sat back and played scared has to be on him.
If you blame it on the officiating you can pick a bunch of different times where calls were missed on the Wild that could have changed the game as well.
C’Mon Father. They did until Roy pulled the netminder with almost three minutes to play. You can’t play an attacking style when the other team is pressing with an extra attacker.
I think this was finally a chance for you to truly blame the coach for a loss of the game, but you decide to harp on the horrible officiating.
The Wild had the game won if they would have continued to play the way they were playing to get a one goal lead. The became so conservative, so defensive, that it was inevitable they would give up the goal for a tie. It was Mike Yeo’s job to keep them playing an aggressive intense style. It did not happen – that is why they lost.
The officiating was horrendous all game, and all series, but it has not been one sided. They are blowing call for both teams. On the tie goal, the Wild had many opportunities to prevent it – they should not have been with counting on the refs to make a holding call or a close offside call.
This was not Yeo’s fault. I would argue that they weren’t defensive enough. they did push for an empty net goal. That’s what caused an odd man rush. Fans should have the expectation that the officials would be competent enough to make the right call. If the NHL can’t improve in this regard (All the series have seen brutal officiating) they must expand replay to every play.
I know that’s not practical but the one thing that woks is that Toronto reviews video pretty quickly. The NHL needs to fire almost all their officials and train new ones. Their needs to be consequences for making terrible calls and non-calls in the playoffs.
83.1 Off-side — Players of the attacking team must not precede the puck into the attacking zone.
The position of the player’s skates and not that of his stick shall be the determining factor in all instances in deciding an off-side. A player is off-side when both skates are completely over the leadingedge of the blue line involved in the play.
A player is on-side when either of his skates are in contact with, or on his own side of the line, at the instant the puck completely crosses the leadingedge of the blueline regardless of the position of his stick.
Good try but Statsny’s left skate never touches the ice. the part of rule that you left was
A player is on-side when either of his skates are in contact with, or on his own side of the line, at the instant the puck completely crosses the leadingedge of the blueline regardless of the position of his stick (Courtesy of Denverpost.com).
On is the key word. That is why players try to drag their foot. Must be on the ice.
Hey Jeff…..Go lie down by your dish.
Barry, I think Jeff got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. :)
Tony thanks for the comment. I like your expanded replay idea.
Jeff, I disagree with you as this was an opinion piece straight from the writers heart. The officials did blow several calls and missing the offside call shows that the nhl must expand instant replay possibly to nfl levels where every goal must be confirmed by the boys in Toronto.
You guys need to proof read your articles. Typos and journalism don’t mix. Also, need to stop writing as if you’re a high school newspaper. It is hard to take anything posted on this site seriously when the writing is so atrocious.
Jeff, you’re pretty brave…. I didn’t see anything wrong with Anthony’s post. Must be an Av’s fan?
Thanks Eric. I did make two typos and went back to correct them but it wasn’t as bad as Jeff made it seem. At least I can be honest.