Lets see here...
Wings/Preds: Called fairly tight, but within the rulebook.
Kings/Canucks: Seemed to be called ok. Most things were called that should have been. Interested to see how that one turns out due to Canucks' antics.
Flyers/Pens: Bad. Bad blown calls, bad missed calls and bad calls.
Caps/Bruins: Obstructions will not be called it seems like. Did not seems to be called that well. Not Flyers/Pens bad but not great still. The do no wrong 3rd is just stupid.
Yotes/Hawks: In progress but looks like it's being called fair but letting them play a bit.
Rangers/Sens and Blues/Sharks: Didn't see much of this one.
5 different games and 5 different reffing styles. I would be interested to hear what people have two say about the two I didn't see much of.
Heart of the problem. Post season hockey is still hockey. Penalties are penalties. I don't care if one team has been called for 8 minors and the other team for 0. I don't care if it's game 7 of the Cup finals. If an infraction occurs then call it. There needs to be far more calls on interference and diving. You get that stuff under control and the league will be much better and eventually, after a brief rise, penalty counts will come down.
In baseball you'll hear talk about the players learning that night's strike zone during the early innings. You know, because every umpire has his own interpretation. So, if you see balls four inches off the plate being called strikes, pitchers will keep throwing them there and hitters will have no choice but to start chasing them. Everyone just accepts this. Why? There's only one damn strikezone. It's clearly defined in the rule book. Why do players have to 'learn' what a strike is for that day's game?
People all year were crediting Detroits defense with Howard's success now people should be seeing he was the reason their defense didn't look terrible. Lidstrom that isnt a turnover factory.
