Hawks Hockey Hoiden

As I said in yesterday’s post, referee Dan O’Halloran killed the Hawks in games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals.  He called so many penalties on the Hawks while ignoring so many others from the Flyers that it would be safe to argue that O’Halloran alone cost the Hawks games 3 and 4.

In tonight’s game 5, it looked like Dustin Byfuglien agreed when during a check of Flyers’ d-man Kimmo Timonen at about the 10 or 11 minute mark of the 3rd period, he took out Dan O’Halloran as well.  Two goons with one stone.  It was a thing of beauty!  O’Halloran seemed to know that hit was meant for him too by the look on his face.  Karma can be tricky Danny boy, so you just better watch out.  The hockey gods don’t seem to like your intentional missed calls on the Flyers.

Finally, just to add insult to injury, Hawks’ Dustin Byfuglien scored the last goal of the 7-4 victory over the Flyers with an empty-netter in the last minute-and-a-half of the game with Dan O’Halloran having to rule it a good goal.  So sweet.  Go Hawks!  Get that cup!

P.S. Hats off to Q for taking Big Buff and Kaner off the first line and moving Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky up with Toews.  It totally threw off the Flyers.  They couldn’t put the bullseye on any one player and with Buff checking up and down like a mad man, it was discombobulating to the Flyers.  Hopefully Niklas Hjalmarsson can figure his game out by game 6 though, because we need him blocking shots.  Don’t know what’s up with him, but he has that deer-in-headlights look about him.

Thanks to Comcast’s re-runs (thank you Comcast!) and no thanks to Versus, which I still hate, I have been able to watch the Blackhawks crash and burn in games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals.  Oh my gosh, I thought commentators were exaggerating when they were saying the refs in these last two games were missing calls left and right, or at least missing calls on the Flyers left and right.  Maybe they weren’t so much missing the calls as just not calling them.  That will happen when your zebras are bought off, and like the title of this post suggests, I bet it’s surprisingly cheap, all things considered, to buy off an NHL ref.  How else do you explain really bad calls on our guys like Hawks’ Patrick Sharp who was called for slashing as the Flyers’ opponent took an obvious  dive, while the Flyers got away with hooking, slashing, tripping, and most conspicuously multiple cross-checks?  (more…)

I like how NBC’s guest commentator Jeremy Roenick described tonight’s Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Blackhawks and the Flyers as “smash mouth hockey.”  Yep.  Old school.  That’s what fans, new and old, have been waiting to see.  Less pansying up the game of hockey, more just letting the boys go.  Those zebras sure did miss some calls on the Flyers though!

Tonight it was “May the best men win,” and they did as the Hawks won 2-1 against the Flyers to take the second game (after the Hawks took the Flyers 6-5 in the opener).  Bang on boys!