Is Vancouver really the NHL’s public enemy number one?
Date Posted: May 19, 2011
Print Edition: May 13, 2011
By Paul Falardeau (The Cascade) – Email
Every game and every sport needs rules. To uphold them, we need unbiased, impartial judges who are well-versed in said rules; we need referees. Inevitably, the referee becomes the bane of a fan’s existence as, inevitably, calls don’t go the way of the home team and the next thing you know, we’ve got a riot on our hands. This is true of all sports: a light foul in basketball, an outside strike in baseball, but in a highly physical, fast-paced sport such as hockey, the crème de le crème of ref-hating becomes a part of almost every game. In the playoffs, it seems like every call is scrutinized by not only fans, but coaches and players as well.
Although I’m sure that every team could make its claim to fame as “the team who the NHL picks on the most,” the Vancouver Canucks certainly seem to have a fair argument for the title. How many times does it seem that we, as Canucks fans, watch a guy like Dustin Byfuglien dance his way around the ice, high-sticking, cross-checking, and roughing all the while with nary an eyelash-batted in his direction? Second, after the latest offence by such a player, Vancouver is called for a weak “too-many men” call or tripping because the inanimate corpse of one of our players, fresh from a mauling by Byfuglien, gets in the way of an inattentive player.
OK, maybe I’m exaggerating (a little) but let’s look at a recent case. The Raffi Torres hit on Seabrook in the first-round Chicago series. A legitimate hit on Seabrook (as it was later ruled) drew a penalty because he went down hard and Torres had “a reputation.” Torres had made one bad play in Edmonton to end the regular season and suddenly became public enemy number one. Chicago called for blood and Seabrook heroically limped away from the play. The Blackhawks scored on the resulting penalty. All this for a legitimate hit with the only player at fault being Seabrook, the Chicago player in the “look-out-you’re-gonna-get-creamed zone” with his head down. Sorry for the bruises, next time keep yer head up, kid.
The real story here is the way the referees were calling Torres all series like he was Ted Bundy. It calls to question how fair, unbiased and well-versed in NHL rules referees really are. Many fans suggested corruption in the league all the way to the top. Bettman wants certain teams to win in order to increase profit margins (sounds like a case for Michael Scarn). Of course all teams have these tales of misjudgment. Nashville, for example, has had its fair share to say about Ryan Kesler’s “chicken-winging.”
So, what does it all come down to? Is Vancouver really a team that Gary Bettman’s NHL brings the hammer down on? I’ve searched the NHL.com forums, and it seems few franchises have such a well-bred history of conspiracy theories. It also seems like teams the NHL has some investment (imagined or otherwise) in get calls swaying in their favour.
What are the hard facts though? NHL.com’s stats page offers some truth. In the playoffs, Vancouver has an average of 14.5 PIM/G, which means they have the fifth-highest amount of penalty minutes awarded in these playoffs. In the regular season, Vancouver received 943 PIM, making them one of the most average teams in terms of penalization. Talk to the Islanders if you want to know about being in the box. Canuck’s centre Maxim Lapierre does lead the playoffs with 30 PIM, but it is a slim margin. Consider then that in the regular season, where Lapierre is also Vancouver’s biggest offender, he ranks a paltry 77 on the list – Byfuglien ranks 50.
The stats seem to indicate that we are all an enchilada short of a combination plate up here in Vancouver. It seems, judging by these stats, that Vancouver is actually one of the most evenly refereed teams in the league.
There will always be bad calls; refs are only human, after all. Also, let’s not forget that the same fans, players, and coaches that complain are hampering the ref to make a call in their favour. Refs need to be more impartial than they recently have been, sure, but we can’t forget that we are all part of the problem.
It’s when those calls significantly sway the course of a game that fans have the right to be upset. So, I’m not going to try and dispute any theories, either that Gary Bettman is an evil man, or that he is trying to “encourage” the winning ways of certain teams. The man clearly has one goal in mind and it’s in his pockets, not in a net, but ask yourself how far you really think he would go? In the meantime it seems, even in lieu of some shaky calls (more the fault of individual efforts by a ref than of the NHL as a whole), the Canucks do not have a price on their heads.
In the end, we are still a playoff contender, the Blackhawks are on the links somewhere, and mean ol’ Buffy? Well, he plays in Atlanta. Enough said.
