Crawford Loses It over Missed Call, but Has no Bertuzzi on His Team to Get Even with Refs

Yeah, Dallas Stars head-coach Marc Crawford pretty much lost it on Wednesday night, belittling referees Dave Jackson and Dean Morton (not by name, just in general) over a critical missed call, but it's Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook we're all somehow looking down on instead. Throwing your stick into the play is as cheap as you can get during actual gameplay, you know, if you're not Sean Avery (or Chris Pronger acting like Sean Avery, which actually isn't as rare as you would think).

It's not that we've come to expect this sort of acting out from Crawford either (just google "Bertuzzi" and "Crawford" to find out what I mean if you just so happened to live under a rock six years ago between the dates of February 16 and March 8, 2004... you could probably also search for "Bertuzzi" and "Moore", or, if you're aided by simple word association, "Bertuzzi" and "oversized dumb-ass"). It's that Seabrook is a decent defenseman and we've just come to expect more out of him.

So, as much as Crawford likes to throw his temper tantrums like a big baby (who somehow is already greying and looks like he's in his mid-50s; progeria?), he does have a point. There should have been a penalty shot on the play in question to allow the Stars a chance to tie the game 4-4 on a penalty shot instead of losing 5-3 thanks to a late empty-net goal by Patrick Sharp. The official rule, 53.6, states the following:

"When any member of the defending team, including the Coach or any non-playing person, throws or shoots any part of a stick or any other object or piece of equipment at the puck or puck carrier in his defending zone, the Referee or Linesman shall allow the play to be completed and if a goal is not scored, a penalty shot shall be awarded to the non-offending team. This shot shall be taken by the player designated by the Referee as the player fouled."

As clearly as that bit about "the Coach" was included to cover all bases in such an instance that Crawford is ever behind a bench during a game, the refs surely screwed up. However, while the game resulted in a six-to-one power-play advantage for Chicago, I don't think it's fair to subscribe to the belief that anyone had it out for the Stars yesterday. Mistakes happen...  and it isn't like Gregory Campbell was anywhere in the general vicinity. Think about it like this: a six-to-one advantage for one team is pretty one-sided. A referee would have to be crazy to allow that to happen and draw attention to his lack of partiality. So, said referee (or tandem of referees) can likely justify every one of those calls and calls not made; or he's just crazy-stupid.

As for Crawford, yeah, he as justified in this instance, but for a guy that really does look like he's approaching 60 and is just 49, calm down. Take some yoga. Breathe. Remember: Things aren't that bad for you overall. For instance, things could have turned out a lot worse for you after the Steve Moore incident. Hell, you could be Steve Moore.