October 27, 2010

Turnabout is Fair Play, but...

If you caught the game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night, you apparently bore witness to one of the worst non-calls in all of sports: history goalie interference on Cory Stillman as he deliberately steamrolled over goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere as teammate Dennis Wideman tied the game 1-1:



Just what was the referee doing at the time of this atrocity? Evidently he was on his knees, doing something rather unseemly to the game. I mean, clearly Stillman was looking for blood. I'm rather surprised he wasn't ejected after clearly viciously attacking Giguere with his skate like that. What is this world in which we're living coming to??? I ask you, what???

In all seriousness, the above play was used in part as an example as to why the Leafs' Colton Orr's third-period, game-winning goal was allowed. If you missed that one, here it is for your viewing pleasure:



In fact, Giguere had this to say following the game: "I thought they should have called mine. I'm sure they probably think that they should have called theirs. We're even."

The sheer difference in magnitudes of blatancy aside (along with Giguere's clear-cut brain damage after letting his nonsensical Conn Smythe Trophy-victory in 2003 go to his head) , the Wideman goal should have counted, while the Orr one shouldn't have, based on actual NHL rules, specifically rule 69:

Rule 69.1: "Goals should be disallowed only if: (1) an attacking player, either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper's ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal; or (2) an attacking players initiates intentional or deliberate contact with a goalkeeper, inside or outside of his goal crease. Incidental contact with a goalkeeper will be permitted, and resulting goals allowed, when such contact is initiated outside of the goal crease, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact. The rule will be enforced exclusively in accordance with the on-ice judgment of the Referee(s), and not by means of video replay or review."

That last bit is important, meaning referee Stephen Walkom couldn't have gone to video review to reveal his own idiocy even if he wanted to, but we'll get to that later on. Right now, it's more important to focus on the fact that Stillman was outside the crease when his skate touched Giguere's. It's also important to realize that Giguere was the one that bumped into Stillman and not the other way around. Finally, it's important to realize that if Stillman purposely put himself in a position to get nudged by Giguere with the sole intention of throwing him off his game, he's clearly earned his Screen Actors Guild membership for the next few years at least... that and Giguere has the mental toughness (and perhaps capacity) of an exhausted hamster just finishing up his daily workout in his wheel.

As for Orr, let's agree to disagree when you say: "I was trying to not make contact. I was just trying to get out to the front."

Far be it for me to try to get into the head of a professional hockey player, especially one I've never met personally, but if Orr was not trying to make contact with Clemmensen he at the very least must have been slightly confused and mistaken goalie Scott Clemmensen for one of those new hybrid goaltenders you can walk through. An easy-enough mistake to make, that. You're excused.

Really, at the end of the day, even without Orr's goal, the Leafs would have won 2-1 (although I really hate to play the would've, could've game). Phil Kessel did score late in the game to put it out of reach, and the Leafs won relatively fair and square. Orr was guilty of goaltender intereference, but more importantly he was guilty of trying to give his team a chance to win.

The onus falls on the referee to make the right call and he didn't. All ref Stephen Walkom told Clemmensen was that he thought he was out of the crease when he got hit, meaning he either misinterpreted the rule completely, needs glasses because he can't see two feet in front of him, or is just incompetent. As a referee who should know the rulebook inside and out, he failed at his job. But them's the breaks. The breaks went the Leafs' way last night. Just like the Leafs didn't get the breaks when they lost their first game of the season against the New York Islanders (although I equally maintain they lost that game fair and square), you get up, dust yourself off, and move on. That's all that can be done... except for groaning about how much the league is in love with the Leafs. That's always fun, too.

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