Befuddled Blackhawks

Horrendous officiating dominates game

Devils 5 – Blackhawks 3 (en) In a game where only four penalties were whistled a fan wonders how the officials could influence the outcome of the game so dramatically.

When the announcers on TNT which hosts Wednesday Night Hockey not only complain that there was no penalty on the initial penalty called but kept harping on it, so obvious to those of us watching that it should not have been called.

But the nail in the coffin was the last penalty whistled against a Chicago player who was defending young Center Bedard who was literally being shoved/pushed/crosschecked while lying on the ice, the ensuing New Jersey power play scored.

This on the heels of a prior game where Center Bedard was issued an “abuse of an official” penalty because of something he said that hurt the Referees feelings.

Referees and Linesmen have one of the most difficult positi0ns in all of sports professional and amateur, from a young age 14- and 15-years old officials in minor leagues are even abused by fans.

I am always willing to give the on-ice officials the benefit of the doubt, but some Referees make that very difficult to believe that they are using their best judgement without any bias.

Around the League

Canucks 5 – Islanders 2 (en) Both teams are competing for the last wild card seeding in their respective Conferences and after a scoreless first period the Canucks and Islanders combined for 24 SOG and a 2-2 tie during the second period of play.

Vancouver scored quickly in the third period forcing New York to pull their goaltender and with two minutes remaining in the game the Canucks get the empty net score.

Stars 4 – Oilers 3 Dallas and Edmonton are keeping ahead of the wild card hopefuls in the Western Conference as Stars LW Robertson scored a natural hat trick in a nine and half minute stretch during the second period that contributed to a 4-0 Dallas advantage heading into the third period.

Edmonton roared back in the third period and after scoring three times to get within one goal of the Stars with 95 seconds remaining in the game, Edmonton could not score that fourth goal.

Ducks 6 – Bruins 2 Anaheim’s victory gets them within one game of playing 500% hockey and unfortunately for the Eastern Conference Boston Bruins they remain mired in 13th place.