FINAL: 4 Philadelphia @ 6 Ottawa, 5:00PM, Sunday, January 8, 2012

It's a shame this back to back against Philly was after the Winter Classic.

I'd love to hear Laviolette and the Flyers room after the 6-4 loss

wprager wrote:Yeah, two bad penalties. Still makes you wonder how Carkner's gets called for interference when whats-his-name does not. Then Condra gets called for tripping when it really looked like a pretty bad dive -- how does that get called when they are short-handed, while the interference on Condra earlier does not?

Then I read this: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Ottawa/2012/01/08/19216581.html

“He probably shouldn’t have been in the game since he speared a guy,” said MacLean.

That's a dig at the refs.

Then he continues:

“Our goalie has 19 wins, he isn’t up for the Vezina Trophy, I know, but he’s got 19 wins in the league and he didn’t have the same opportunity to play the net and play his position as I thought (Flyers goalie) Ilya Bryzgalov did,” said MacLean.

Another dig, perhaps?

Great ghost of Clouston!

He can afford to take digs at the refs because any retribution can be blamed on Clouston for at least another 3 years. Maybe 4.

Clouston for sure did some major damage with the refs along with the players for the last few years. They need to regain a reputation so they get some calls going there way more often than not.

NEELY wrote:Clouston for sure did some major damage with the refs along with the players for the last few years. They need to regain a reputation so they get some calls going there way more often than not.

Clouston did "damage" because calls were already going the other way more often than not. Every Cussing coach in the goddamn NHL argues just about every call the refs make. Bottom line is the refs all grew up cheering for the Leafs and can't help looking for excuses to call the Senators.

Fact.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

NEELY wrote:Clouston for sure did some major damage with the refs along with the players for the last few years. They need to regain a reputation so they get some calls going there way more often than not.

Clouston did "damage" because calls were already going the other way more often than not. Every Cussing coach in the goddamn NHL argues just about every call the refs make. Bottom line is the refs all grew up cheering for the Leafs and can't help looking for excuses to call the Senators.

Fact.

I actually see more of a correlation between excessive penalty calling and French-Canadian referees. Last year I actually looked into the stats and they supported my observation.

As well, it appears the NHL favors big-market teams. Leafs tends to get power plays late when they are behind. Philly has, for years, been known to be a pretty rough team, yet they are the second least penalized team. I realize Pronger is out, but still. And speaking of Pronger, he himself usually gets away with way more than he should, given his style of play.

The Sens are second worst in the NHL (only Winnipeg is worse) in PP versus PK minutes handed out. I realize it's a young team, so not only will they make mistakes, but also the refs tend to give vet players more rope. But it's been like this for quite a while. Back when the Sens were a (regular season) powerhouse they would routinely have to play through all manner of hooking, holding, etc. but as soon as they did anything similar the arm would go up. Hossa was one of the worst in this regard -- it was like the refs decided that, because he was more skilled, more powerful, they ended up handicapping him to compensate.

wprager wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:

NEELY wrote:Clouston for sure did some major damage with the refs along with the players for the last few years. They need to regain a reputation so they get some calls going there way more often than not.

Clouston did "damage" because calls were already going the other way more often than not. Every Cussing coach in the goddamn NHL argues just about every call the refs make. Bottom line is the refs all grew up cheering for the Leafs and can't help looking for excuses to call the Senators.

Fact.

I actually see more of a correlation between excessive penalty calling and French-Canadian referees. Last year I actually looked into the stats and they supported my observation.

Well played. No way anyone disagrees with criticizing "the french."

Well, you can criticize them in French. That way, at least Le Journal won't attack you.

What a nice feeling today...3 of 4 vs Philly. Love it.

SpezDispenser wrote:What a nice feeling today...3 of 4 vs Philly. Love it.

More hockey, please!

Ottawa just doesn't have the respect in the league. Big market teams always get a break from the refs. We just have to battle through it.

We do get breaks from time though, it's not like the refs consistently screw us over. We got a 5-3 on Saturday and I fully expected that Neil's goal wouldn't count (we got hosed on video review as well).

During Clouston's time we didn't do enough to draw penalties. Now that we attack with speed and crash the net more often we are forcing opposition D-men to panic or take a penalty to stop a sure goal.

Carkner was a bit of a loose cannon. I think he's trying too hard to make himself noticed since he's most likely on his way out after this season.

We do let opposing teams have too much freedom in our crease, Philly (Simmonds in particular) got away with too much in there. We need to get better at sending a message that no funny stuff around Anderson will be tolerated.

Agree with Hoags, it'll all work out as this team continues to get noticed as a completely different one from years past.

It evened out a bit when they gave us aPP with 5 minutes left yesterday.

SpezDispenser wrote:Agree with Hoags, it'll all work out as this team continues to get noticed as a completely different one from years past.

It evened out a bit when they gave us aPP with 5 minutes left yesterday.

Yeah. The refs like to do that to appear to be fair when they think the game is out of reach.

SeawaySensFan wrote:
Yeah. The refs like to do that to appear to be fair when they think the game is out of reach.

It's not like our PP is really dangerous lately or anything.

Although the Sens going on the PK so often is a huge momentum killer.

Hoags wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:
Yeah. The refs like to do that to appear to be fair when they think the game is out of reach.

It's not like our PP is really dangerous lately or anything.

Although the Sens going on the PK so often is a huge momentum killer.

Instead of getting excited when we get a PP I get frustrated and just want it to end.

The PP/PK discrepancy (way more PK time) is a little odd considering that we are NOW a hard-working team, versus a lazy one. Yesterday on the broadcast they brought up the teams with the most PP time versus PK time, and the top two were…….Carolina and Colorado. So, it's not really the big market teams getting breaks…just the teams that people feel indifferent to (or sorry for). But yeah, I could buy the argument that most refs are either Leafs or Habs fans and are therefore tougher on the Sens. It is frustrating at times, but I just try not to care too much.

And someone mentioned that Hossa puts up with more hooking and holding than anyone…and I agree with that 100%. I watched the Blackhawks/Red Wings game last night, and Detroit was draped (ahahah Kris Draper) all over Hossa all night, but there were no calls.

That was just pay back fro skipping town. Some refs are Detroit fans, too.