Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Paging Doctor Mulder - Sabres 1, Gutsy Habs 1, Refs 1 (OT)


You know, I generally really hate people who blame the refs. It's a pet peeve of mine.Yes, the reffing may have been crappy in a particular game, but give it up dude. You lost, you didn't score enough goals to win, etc. etc. Even if the team that was allegedly screwed was the Habs, I hated falling into that blame the refs trap. I thought it was cowardly and just idiotic. Man up; you / we lost, get over it.

But not anymore. Because I am now one of those people. I blame the refs for last night, and deservedly so.

Do I think the Gomez penalty in the last minute of a 1-1 game was a penalty? Absolutely (though I believe the recipient clearly embellished, and Gomez' stick really didn't connect, his hand did). Do I blame Gomez for taking it? Not in the fucking least, even though he himself has taken full responsibility and others have blamed him. I don't blame him because he believed that the refs had put their whistles away in the last couple of minutes of a tie game, if not the whole fucking last two periods. How could he not when CHeez Whiz was absolutely CRUSHED, FROM BEHIND, INTO THE BOARDS by Gaustad I think it was, with no call whatsoever, no more than a minute before Gomez got called. I tried to find video of it but the NHL powers that be have removed all traces of it from the internet. You could point to a bunch of other non-calls too, from Lego getting hacked IN THE FACE and repeatedly cross-checked and manhandled and roughed and boarded and molested by Tyler Myers to a blatant holding the stick of Moen to other shit I'm too angry about to try and remember.

What REALLY pisses me off is that the refs seemed to have been influenced by Lindy Ruff's little temper tantrum early in the game when one of his players actually did get called for a penalty. Lindy railed into the refs, and from then on out, they seemed to be scared of him. DO YOU SEE NOW CHOKULA WHY SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO SCREAM AT THE REFS??? I hate this fucking league.

Anything else happen in the game last night? No? Moving on then.

Oh right, right, we had a couple guys get dinged. Let's go to the bullet points:
  • Squid's shoulder goes crashing into the boards (with a shove from behind btw, no call), looks to be separated, TSN reported minimum two weeks out;
  • Max PatCHes' giant heart takes a CHeez Whiz slap shot, he's rushed to hospital though he flew home with the team. RDS reports it's his ribs, no word on seriousness;
  • CHallah disappears in the first sometime, returns to the bench but barely sees any action;
  • PFK blocks a shot with his foot, limps / crawls off the ice but returns;
  • Hal Gilligan injures his wrist, looks to be ok;
  • JM appeared to be unconscious (well, ok, that's every game);
  • Mcsplooge seemed to be suffering from some horrible laughing disease. Fuck you you asshole, your Hamilton jokes were not funny.
In the wake of all that, the Habs played the game with essentially three lines, a mere 24 hours after a tough win over the Flames. They deserve all the credit in the world for fighting though it and earning a point. Carey played some heroic hockey, and many others really stepped up (PFK, Lego, Gio, even Gomez and Swiss Mister II). I could go on about how courageous they were, but I will close by paraphrasing one of my favourite moments from Lloyd Bridges in Airplane II:

Gentlemen, I don't find it easy to talk at a time like this, but I got to say something about that team up there, and I can sum it all up in just one word: courage...dedication, daring, pride, pluck, spirit, grit, mettle, and G-U-T-S, *guts*. Why, The Habs got more guts in their little finger than most of us have in our large intestine, INCLUDING THE COLON.

/ falls over drunk

56 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bravo! Damn fine diatribe right there. This sight could use some more fuck the system if you asked me.

J.T. said...

Very nice rant, 29, and I agree with most of it. HOWEVER: Gomez *was*, without a doubt, unforgivably stupid. It doesn't matter if the refs sucked balls all night. The very nature of their inconsistency SHOULD have been fair warning to a veteran player that they could turn around and decide to call something out of the blue. Gomez put himself in the position to take a stupid, thoughtless penalty, and he got caught. Blame the refs if you will, but it was no phantom call. Whether they'd been failing to call similar offences all night or not, Gomez SHOULD have known better than to give them an excuse. Eller, Gio and Wiz put up with shit for the good of the team. Hothead Gomez didn't, and it cost everyone. That's on him.

Hadulf said...

What REALLY pisses me off is that the refs seemed to have been influenced by Lindy Ruff's little temper tantrum early in the game...

Exactly what happened with the Flames too. Sutter did the same. And what happened after that? Exactly.

For what it's worth, we have a point.

Steve said...

I would call for a Richard like riot to lay waste to Buffalo, but its like Rumsfeld said about Afghanistan. "There is nothing to bomb there"

Since the days of Clarence Campbell to the sneering runt of today Montreal has had to fight on the ice and in the boardroom. Bettman can only tolerate one Canadian team in the playoffs.

bea.habs.fan said...

absolutely perfect 29.
you've put into words exactly like what I feel about the reffing.

everybody around the league is now bitching about the reffing not just whiners or habs fan = obviously it's becoming an issue. is the league going to do anything about it? NO are the GMs goign to voice theur frustration? only some and not loudly.
FUCKING SUCKS

soperman said...

Great post. I love the Lloyd Bridges line, but the care you took to put in the stage direction (/ falls over drunk) is what really makes it funny to me!

Thank you Jesus Price for giving us the Allstar break so we can heal our wounds.

Hmmm, I am surprised that some fanatical blogger isn't complaining that while Price is playing well he is still falling short by not healing the knees, shoulders, ribs, etc. of his teammates with his sacred touch. I believe that Patrick Roy could do that.

The Roadrunner said...

Thanks for the rant. The Gomez call was right (barely) but I'm sure Cheeze Whiz and Lego were pulling wood from their teeth after all the non-calls.

Lego got punched in the head four times by my count.

the Maritimer said...

Excellent recap of the carnage last night 29.

I think the Montreal Canadiens should take pride in the fact that 95% of the referees hate their guts.

I'm not 100% sure but wasn't Mike Weber's hit on #13 called for a penalty and that's when Ruff went ballistic? Montreal did not get one single power play after that.

Regardless, my hat is off to the lads today for that gutsy effort being down one whole line for more than two-thirds of the game.

Thanks especially to Carey Price for a great performance!

moeman said...

Nice one 29.

Funniest thing about last night was the Sabres Stanley Cup winning celebration at the end.

What a pathetic team of slugs.

I ❤ Brent Hull.

Orangeman said...

I know I complain about the refs here, but hopefully in a humourous and hyperbolic way. But last night was just bad. Well said, 29. As mentioned last night, Pominville did the exact same move as PK after his goal yet I see nothing in the media decrying it. Odd. I'm sure it means nothing.

I wish JM would just show a fleck of emotion, or sign of life. I don't want Torterella levels of mental instability, but maybe let the players know you are paying attention to the game? I'm no expert, though.

GoldenGirl11 said...

Maybe someone with clout knows, oh, I don't know, Dr. Mulder's secretary or something, and we can find out what's going on. I want to know who is suiting up against Yappière because if it's my aunt Matilda she's very sensitive and needs to prepare mentally.

Steve said...

When Chocula is in Buffalo his mind it totally foucsed on Malarchuk, blood I smell blood.

Young HF29 said...

RDS just tweeted minimum four weeks for Squid. ugh

Steve said...

Bring up the skinny Russian he is over 6 ft tall, we have enough smurfs and the farm system is stocked to overflowing.

moeman said...

Minimum 2 weeks for PatCHes, possibly 4, busted ribs. BR tweeted that The Urologist would never have aimed directly at a teammate.

Steve said...

@moemen LOL

Steve said...

On the matter of injuries, most are coming from the puck.

Solution 1) replace with sponge puck, for some teams that stickhandle and pass it would not work, but for the Leafs no one would notice the change

Solution 2) Seriously: mandate wooden sticks, there is no reason for the puck to go 200KpH

moeman said...

Remember those hard plastic orange street hockey balls? Freeze those and use instead of pucks. Betcha some still have welt scars. Bonus, as a goalie you could pass those off as multiple hickey marks.

Steve said...

@Moemen I expect NHL will adopt orange ball suggestion, because on tv it will look like a strobbing laser beam, thus allowing Americans to understand someone is trying to make a basket.

Fishfeet said...

@29 : Agreed on the blaming the ref rant. I tend to be guilty of that myself. They're human after all, but TFS have mercy on them if they are deliberately throwing games.

@Steve : +1 on the wooden stick suggestion. Maybe this could mean less crazy goalie gear too.

Le Douze said...

@Steve - I'm not so sure about going back to the wooden sticks ... I was just getting used to the seventeen broken sticks per game thing, don't know if I could handle the change back to only 1 or2. Maybe if they went to those Cosom hockey plastic sticks with the hollow plastic pucks? Now that was an equipment set that let you make a (flying) saucer pass!

But seriously, Cammy out for four weeks, and MaxPac with a busted rib? Sigh. Though I guess that's better than a busted humerous, which is what I guessed for Max, but not the best for finishing your checks.

I suppose that will make it harder for JM to sit AK (not that he needs it right now), Lego, or Chicken (not to mention any other forward with a pulse). Maybe they can call up Louie Louie Louahh?

moeman said...

Not one to sarcasstically comment on other team's players injuries, so I won't;

"New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced today that Brandon Dubinsky has suffered a stress fracture of the fibula in his left leg, and is expected to be sidelined for three to four weeks."

moeman said...

On your iMarks, get iSet;

http://tenbillionapps.com/

moeman said...

Andreas Engqvist called up. Begin the nickname CHallenge...

Steve said...

I have to go with Scrabble.

moeman said...

heh, that is good Steve.

I'd add the required 'H' = sCHrabble.

moeman said...

PatCHes ribs ain't busted. RDS says severe contusion. May skate tomorrow. CHeers!

iRiRi said...

Good news! No broken ribs for PatCHes! Just a severe contusion. He's gonna try to skate tomorrow and aims to play Friday!

iRiRi said...

You beat me to the punCH!

moeman said...

I'm flu ridden!

Orangeman said...

!

Sorry, I just wanted to get in on that sweet exclamation point action.

@Steve: Scrabble, Nice one.

Traif Apple Cake said...

Leaf trampled 4-0 Rags in the first. Munster pulled. +11 @steve for wooden sticks, the sticks they have now are like doping, should be banned. @29 hey you guys are lawyers can't you draw up an affidavit or something on those refs from yesterday, get them to annul yesterday's game?

btw, I know CHallah is catching on around here, but I keep calling him Hamburger Halpern.

Number31 said...

Patches played with a separated shoulder last year before another injury tossed him out of the lineup and even then he tried playing with it. A bruised rib is just a flesh wound for him.

I vote for Nerf pucks.

Engqvist may be here because Halpern may be concussed and/or has a shoulder injury (fuck you Trolleta). He once said something like he'll play in the NHL one day or will die trying. He's a shutdown type guy and hopefully helps Hamr/Spacek on the penalty kill.......(who had no business being out there in OT on the PK and THAT'S why Chocula failed to help his team possibly get 2 points).

moeman said...

tsn showed a glimpse of their blue balls when they listed the top 3 most expensive Ds in the league;

Tied for 1st: VAN and the PHucktards

3rd: leaf

They didn't discuss further but methinks its an egg management fee.

moeman said...

Love seeing dave 'the fool' hodge drool all over himself.

Kate said...

Okay, time to rescue Shelly from the Hershey Bears, he never hits his teammates. Come to think of it he could probably score more goals than any of our forwards have so far.

Yes, I know he's a pylon but he could just play on the PP.

Curly-Q said...

Suckulence 0-7. On the 7th goal fucking McSplooge finally losing faith "this is bad for anyone who cares about hockey". Headline on fucking NHL.com "Leafs look to begin playoff push" what a fucking joke.calling fucking Pominvile a 'hero' for OT goal by the refs last night. Fuck composite sticks! GHG!

Number31 said...

McSplooge isn't laughing at the Leaf slaughter. He sure was enjoying seeing the injured stroll by last night! Asshat.

moeman said...

Celine wrapped up in his own jersey, perfect.

Orangeman said...

Whoa, whoa, whoa...wait a minute...guys...
EVERYONE SHUT UP!

Anne Hathaway is playing Catwoman in the new Batman movie!

/falls over drunk

moeman said...

Before the season started tsn's 'expert' panel discussed every Canadian team. mcsplooge said and I quote "brian burke is building something magical". He wants a leaf job, bad.

Orangeman said...

@Curly-Q: (Re: delusional pro-leaf headlines). One in the Toronto Star today: "Rangers may test Leafs". Uh, guys, they're 14 pts up. Unless by 'test' you reference a new born chimp taking the LSAT.

moeman said...

mcsplooge will pick leaf corn out of leaf shit all night long.

moeman said...

Bizarrosplooge; "thats the leaf first misconduct of the year, thats good news for the leaf fan". Too fucking weird.

Orangeman said...

Hodgemail for the week: "What direction are the leafs going this season?"

They're 12 pts out of the playoffs and still don't have a 1st round pick. Oh, but some guy is having a career year. Everything's fine then. Btw, you're a national network, you might want to at least recognize there are other teams in Canada. How many different ways can you ask the same question and have the same discussion? We get it, the leaf suck. How about Ignila? Vancouver's rise to the top? The Oil's future? The Sens woes? The Habs peseverence through injury? Head shots? The all-star game? Fucking zamboni technology?

moeman said...

Go Ducks! Go Saku!

moeman said...

0man, no need to put an 's' on leafs, leaf is more derogatory and fun for kids of all ages.

Also, the all-knowing leaf fan mcsplooge said that all the leaf has to do is get that negative 12 pts into single digits and chip a way.

Orangeman said...

@moe: I did it for quoting accuracy that time. It was intentional, painful and somewhat regretful.

Orangeman said...

@moe: ha! Yeah, and all I have to do to get rid of my student debt is get it down to a few thousand and then just chip away at it. It's really that simple. This whole recession thing could have been averted if people just thought about this.

moeman said...

Oman, I'll give you that one but I'll keep an eye on you. Not a mcsploogian eye though cuz I like the ladies. NTTIAWWT.

moeman said...

Oman, sell that huge TV and chip away at that student loan.

moeman said...

hahaha mcsplooge was just mouthing wilson;

"Coach Ron Wilson spoke before the game about a need to head into next week’s all-star break on a high, winning three or four of the five games leading up to it in order to make a dent in the 12-point gap between Toronto and eighth place in the Eastern Conference." ~ G&M

Fucking leaf hand puppet.

Orangeman said...

Huh, the TSN panel just pointed out that out of the final 4 goalies last playoffs none of them returned to their teams. Interesting. Then I realized that I don't remember who was in the WCF with the Blackhawks.

Orangeman said...

The Sharks. It was SJ. Thanks wikipedia! Somehow I just assume they're always out in the 1st round.

Seriously, I have a vision of a SJ/MTL final. Have since 1993.

Bill 101 said...

Scrabble & Lego - I love it already

Who elso joins the analog toy line?

Number31 said...

If the playoffs started tomorrow:
Thrashers vs Flyers
Habs vs Booins
Rags vs Bolts
Caps vs Pens
Leaf vs Golfballs