Man Advantage?
In hockey being on the power play can be referred to as having a “man advantage”. So far in the Predators playoff series with Detroit the Wings appear to be on the power play a lot! The bigger problem is that “man advantage” is the man wearing a striped shirt!
I am not one to complain about officiating. I believe teams win and lose games, players create opportunities and everyone, that’s EVERYONE makes mistakes. We may not like it but officials, like players are not perfect.
However, in this most critical time of the year every call gets amplified and when there’s the chance to get a call correct the crew in charge should take it.
Today in Game 2 Barry Trotz and company were unhappy with a number of calls, 2 in particular. First, the Preds first goal that was taken off the board when Radek Bonk was ruled to have been in the net and knocked the net off. Second, Tomas Holmstrom was not called for interferring with Dan Ellis on the Wings second goal. The replay confirms the Preds beef on the second, but it was close and I can see how they could make the mistake. Holmstrom has a reputation for being the best in the business at screening the goalie, so I can let that one slide.
However, why bother with replay if they won’t use it! As I understand it when they took the Preds first goal off the board they ruled that they had blown the whistle or at least were intending to blow the whistle so the play was not reviewable. That’s absurd. Replay clearly shows the puck go in the net before Bonk crashed into the back of it and knocked it free regardless of when the whistle blew or was “intended” to blow. Isn’t their first “intention” each game to get all of the calls right or at least as many as they can.
Maybe it’s the rules governing replay that need a second look. The Wings are too good and the stakes are too high to be beaten by technicalities or semantics. Detroit deserves to win on it’s skill, the Preds deserve a chance to at least compete on level ice and the fans deserve a game (and a call)that makes sense.
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