After a convenient blogging lapse, I returned behind the keyboard to summarize the Wings series victory over the dreaded water fowl. I've mentioned before that I despise the Ducks, and the feeling of eliminating them from the playoffs is ever so sweet. As I try my best not to sound spoiled or considered a poor winner, but I have to express my complete and utter lack of respect for the NHL officials last night. I had the privilege of watching game 7 with two Toronto Maple Leaf fans (yes, they still exist in the summer months) and even they were shocked at how many terrible calls were made in the Ducks favour. For those who watched the game, you'll recall during Detroit's first period power play, that Hossa took a high sticking penalty but replays showed Marian's stick not actually making contact with the Duck forward, and commentators even questioned the apparent 'sales job' stating "the call was bad, and the sales job was worse". Regardless Hossa sits for 2 mins and the Wings lose their man advantage.
Chris Pronger deserves his own paragraph when discussing non calls or blatantly incorrect calls. We'll start by a high hit on Hossa before wrapping his arms around #81 and taking him to the ice like an NFL linebacker. I'm pretty sure this could have been called any number of penalties from Holding, Interference, or general douchebaggery. With a referee within 2 feet of Hossa's mugging, the play goes on without a call. Moving on to several crease battles between Thomas Holmstrom and the NHL title holder for 'dirtiest player'. Holmstrom was repeatedly punched, speared, tripped, tackled, and high-sticked in the crease by Pronger, and on ice officials called this 'battling for position'. Then the finishing touch on Pronger's low light reel was when he obviously cross checked Jiri Hudler from behind, sending the Wings smallest forward crashing into the only player with real talent on the Ducks roster. With both players laying on the ice in pain, it only makes sense that Detroit should receive a goaltender interference penalty as opposed to using common sense to determine how/why Hudler decided to run Hiller. The fact this collection of NHL officials allowed 60 minutes of the Anaheim Ducks style of hockey to be played without Chris Pronger getting caught for a single 2 minute minor escapes me. In addition to the brutal penalty calls or non calls I was actually taking a running total during the game, and counted 9 instances where a Detroit center was thrown out of the face-off circle. Don Cherry also touched on this during the intermission. It's nice to know I'm not the only person fed up with important games having biased people in charge of their outcome.
Now, lets not lose focus here. Despite my obvious hatred for the anti-Red Wing slant the NHL appears to be taking, we must celebrate the Ducks exit, and the Wings advancing to the Western Conference final. Darren Helm's breakaway speed was always talked about, but was never more clearly demonstrated than it was on the 2nd goal last night. From blue line to blue line Helm split the Anaheim defenders and left them in his dust. It was nice to see the kid finally score after coming so close in previous games. If Helm plays that hard during the regular season, it'll be fun to watch over 82 games. He was the Wings best player in this series.
Bring on the Hawks.
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