I look at this post and all I see is an organization looking for an excuses for a highly anticipated team that was supposed to make the playoffs, but is not going to.
I look at this post and what I see is a league-wide problem that is bigger than the Kings and bigger than one game. This War Room system has problems, big ones. The NHL needs to get their faulty video review system straight for the sake of every team in the league.
Happens to the rest of the league too, and honestly I don't think we win this game without the blown call.
Honestly, seeing this thread and hearing Dean Lombardi and Hockey operations President tear into an NHL official for bias and screwed up call is pathetic. I thought we were an organization of class...guess not.
Fans are fed up and to everyone in the Kings organization and playing for it, time to shut up and nut up.
Man, if we lost 2-1 in ot or even in regulation, the complaint would've worked to distract fans from focusing on Kings losing streak.. but not when you can't score a goal and get shut out...
I don't know but to me "Character" would've been more like "Let's show them we can win without any refs help." instead of "wah~~ it wasn't a goal, you hate me and I'm gonna tell my mommy.." attitude...
Unfortunately Lombardi's wrath is misplaced. It should be aimed at the NHL's screwed-up video review system itself.
Video review is now clearly a league-wide problem and an embarrassment.
The league and its fans must demand excellence. They are not getting excellence.
If the War Room can do no better than that on a blatantly obvious above-the-crossbar call, Gary Bettman and the entire NHL should be humiliated. The NHL's video review, as it currently exists, is entirely unworthy of a major sports league.
Either stop going to Toronto for its useless above-the-crossbar calls, or scrap and revamp the whole video review system.
This isn't a tough problem to solve. It's very basic. You either eliminate video replay OR you put in cameras that WILL provide solid evidence with which to use video reply.
There is NO REASON AT ALL to not have a crossbar level camera at each side of each goal and also have one camera tucked right under the cross-bar looking down.
IF there were two side-view angles of last night's incidents and they still couldn't see it clearly is one thing. But they have a reply system in place and they don't even take the time/effort to set up cameras to specifically look for the two things that a video replay would be used to confirm/dispute.
It's like saying you have to see who's behind a door before opening it and then NOT putting in a peephole to allow you to do so.
I agree we likely wouldn't win the game even if the right call was made. That said, that call was an absolute joke and if the NHL is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries and equipment for the war room to continue to make $hitty calls like that, DL has every right to complain. How that call is allowed to stand and how the war room, especially Murphy, can be allowed to make a mistake like that without public discipline is inexcuseable.
Calls like that do a lot to infuriate fans and do not help the NHL get their desired message across of being one of the best sports out there. Having straight line video feeds from several different angles should be mandatory in all arenas with possibility of the home team forfeiting the game without having complied. For a $2 billion dollar industry to not have camera angles for one of the most often controversial calls that will commonly occur is assinine. I'm glad DL and TM and some of the players said what they said, though I don't like DL accusing Muprhy of being jealous of not getting the job in LA. But kodos to them for being mad and saying so, maybe if everyone does so it'll make the NHL wake up and take action.
Man, if we lost 2-1 in ot or even in regulation, the complaint would've worked to distract fans from focusing on Kings losing streak.. but not when you can't score a goal and get shut out...
I don't know but to me "Character" would've been more like "Let's show them we can win without any refs help." instead of "wah~~ it wasn't a goal, you hate me and I'm gonna tell my mommy.." attitude...
I don't think anything that was said after the game about the call wouldn't have been said if we had been on a 10 game winning streak. Everyone was complaining about the call because it was crap, not as a distraction. Maybe if it wasn't the second time in one season this has happened they wouldn't have complained so much.
Point is, when you are comitting millions in player salaries and other costs as part of a multi-billion dollar industry, to ask that the NHL require at least some minimal efforts to supply camera footage for one of the most commonly argued calls in the sport shouldn't be an issue in the year 2011. That call was pure crap, plain and simple and I'm glad the team went off the board with their comments.
