Big Day in Philadelphia:
Forget Obama-Clinton. The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Washington Capitals in overtime in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series. This is the first time the Flyers have won a playoff series since 2004 (a long time for Philly fans), and an amazing rebound for a team that had the worst record last season.
As for big day in Philly, Phils pulled one out too, and the sixers are (admittedly improbably) up 1-0 against the Pistons.
Philly got by with one, but their run will be short lived.
A penalty is a penalty whenever it occurs. It is nonsense to say let them play because the referee should not decide the game. He decides the game just as much by not calling a penalty, (thus allowing illegal acts to take precedence) as by calling em as he sees em, the best he is able.
I wholeheartedly agree. Not only does putting the whistle away favor one team over the team, it almost always favors the less talented one.
Just look at Super Bowl XXXVI. The refs swallowed their whistles in that game and the Patriots' defensive backs did everything except club the Rams' receivers over the head with a two-by-four. Those non-calls gave the Patriots an edge when the Rams were clearly the better team.
Would that I could. But rumor has it at least one of them will be doing their best to remind us of their presence through November at least...
As for the officiating, that's how it works in the NHL playoffs. The commenters above must be new to the game.
Let's Go Flyers!
It's not about calling penalties vel non during the entire game. It's about calling them during overtime in a hockey playoff, when EVERYONE, including the players, knows and has the expectation (long acknowledged in hockey) that the threshold for calling penalties is much higher in overtime (esp. playoffs) than in regular periods. And that second "trip" didn't reach that threshold. (If anything, the first one was closer -- and certainly your concept of "call 'em as you see 'em" fair officiating shouldn't encompass "make-up" calls for missed initial calls.)
Speaking of refs putting away their whistles, the same might be said for Dean and the DNC.
Who invited this guy?
The officiating is always inconsistent during the playoffs?
I'm hardly new to the game. I've seen bad officiating before in the playoffs, but never quite that bad and never as decisive as it was in that game. Part of competitive sports is accepting unlucky bounces of the puck (e.g. Lidstrom's goal against Nashville over the weekend), bad calls that turn out to matter, etc. But I was at the game against the Flyers, and the refereeing was worse than I can remember seeing. The non-call on Thoresen and the penalty in overtime were both BS, and they pretty clearly cost the Capitals the game.
It's fine to accept defeat when your team was outplayed, or when a close series that could have gone either way ultimately goes against your team because of a few bounces of the puck. That's part of the bittersweet experience of being a sports fan, and you can just hope for a better result the following year. When the referees are the deciding factor, though, it just leaves you angry, I think.
Such is life. Not the first time or the last.
But I wish professional sports leagues' administrations wouldn't defend referees to the death like the Iraq Information Minister during the invasion. I understand fining coaches and players for trashing the officials, but just once I'd like to hear a commissioner say "We're not fining coach X because he's absolutely right."
I can't wait until Briere steps onto the ice in Montreal. It appears that Les Habitants continue to hold a grudge against Briere for signing with the Flyers instead of the Canadiens. I should brush up on my French from High School...how do you say "the Flyers will mop the ice with the Habs"?
The officiating sucks! in the playoffs. I am long since used to it. A few years ago, Terry Gregson called a penalty against the Flyers with about 2 minutes in a scoreless game. The Maple Leafs scored, and the series was over.
That was May 2000, and my sister and I drove from Philly to Pittsburgh that day to see the game. It ended at about 2:45 a.m. It was nuts! I'll never forget it.
The literal translation is:
Les Flyers épongeront la glace avec les Habs.
Although there's probably an idiomatic expression that is a better translation.
Right, even with all the luck in the world, the Flyers fall in game 1 in overtime.