May 1, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs right wing Colton Orr (28) is restrained by a referee during the third period against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden. The Boston Bruins won 4-1. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
Well we’re going into game four of our first round playoffs and one there is one topic that I think that both fans of Toronto and Boston can agree upon. The referees have been terrible! We’ve all seen our share of bad and missed calls in this shortened season, but I swear they’ve increased by an order of magnitude during the post season.
The latest in the series of questionable calls got the Vancouver Canucks removed from the postseason. (While I find this aesthetically pleasing, that last call irked me.) The refs made a boarding call on Daniel Sedin in overtime which led to a Patrick Marleau power play goal forty seconds later. Sedin didn’t board Tommy Wingels. It was a clean hit. (Yea, it felt a little weird saying a Canucks’ players name and ‘clean hit’ in the same sentence.)
Let’s look at the calls made in game three. In the first period, Jaromir Jagr got called for a trip that was anything but. In the second period, the Leafs O’Byrne got called for interference. Then there was Tyler Seguin‘s tripping call. (If any of you watched the game, you didn’t need a lip reader to understand what Seguin’s opinion was on that call!)
The bad calls continued though. Nazem Kadri got called for boarding, but it wasn’t a board. Then at the end of the period, Milan Lucic got called for a back handed, one handed hook. Once again, like the Jagr/ O’Byrne calls they cancelled each other out. Then there was the Phil Kessel / Brad Marchand chirp festival that ended them both in the sin bin in the third period.
While (in my opinion) the officiating was horrendous, most of the calls seem to cancel each other out. On the downside however, the Leafs had scored two power play goals due to calls that should not have been called in the first place. (I’m sure the lackluster power play of the Bruins can be discussed at length in another article.)
The bad calls have already finished one team off, and they are likely to be the end of another team before all is said and done. What do you think of the refs in the postseason? Are they getting it right? Are they blind and/or crazy? We here at Causeway Crowd would love to hear your opinion and you don’t have to like the Leafs or the Bruins to chime in (although liking the Bruins will hold you in my esteem.)