But I don't assign any blame from this game to Neil Christopher. The Komets did this to themselves. Did he miss the first calls and then call the retaliation calls? Yes, welcome to hockey. The Komets have had this problem the ENTIRE season, and they talk and talk and talk about needing to stay away from penalties and they can't do it, no matter who they are.
It's a lack of self-discipline which has creamed them all year. Troy Neumeier talked about it in today's story, and Colin Chaulk has talked about it forever. It's obvious to everyone, but they can't see to do anything about it.
Rockford, the most penalized team in the league, has four more power-play chances than the Komets so far in this series. That's totally on the Komets.
Comments
Not having seen/heard the game, I will put this out there on Christopher. When the Komets won the cup he was the official for the clinching game. This would mean that in that season he was thought of as the best that this league had to offer. Considering the low level of this league, if he really was any good he would have moved up.
That being said, Komet fans need to give up on this conspiracy theory that all officials are out to get them. Remember, it was a Rockford player who shoved/made a gesture at an official and that kind of behaviour gets around the officials communication chain. If they had reason to be "against" someone if would have been Rockford.
the ref did decide the outcome of this game. his calls were late and they were biased. in over 40 years of watching komet hockey i have never seen anyone as bad as this in calling a playoff game. usualy they put away the whistle in the playoffs but this clown called a penalty shot on a guy without the puck and called a double minor high stick on a dive while allowing the hogs to get bye with everything. they even had a guy shove the linesman and a penalty wasnt given because the ref was too busy holding back a hog preventing him from being a third man in during the miller fight. let the guy go and call the penalty. this guy was against the ks and was a joke. yes we got some domb penalties but the ref didnt call any dumb penalties on the hogs and there were two times they had too many men on the ice and nothing happened. sad sad sad. the ks played hard but the reg took the game away from them.
Sorry, blake, you are wrong on this one. This was a horribly called game, and that WAS the reason they lost. By the end of the game, I literally could not think of another way he could have screwed us. I dont want to see him back here again.
The one too many men was blatant and right in front of linesman number 23. He looked right at it and didn't have the guts to make the call because the prior two calls had been against Rockford.
If you question a call once in a while, you get some of those things overlooked. Remember the too many men call on FW in the LAST MINUTES of the last game?
Nice penalty shot call, nice 4 minute highstick call, the guy was so hurt he didn't even leave the ice and was on the powerplay. I know you like to back the refs Tony, and you have a right to do it since you are one, but you can't honestly comment if you weren't there to see this travisty called the UHL. I will admit, if the Komets would have played with the intensity that they showed in the third period, all game, then this wouldn't have happened. The calls were not consistant at all. I know that Blake like always will continue his opinion that it was the Komet's that lost the game, but in my opinion and probably a ton of others who will post a comment tonight or tomorrow, we took a screwing. Being down 4-0 in the second after a slew of bad and questionable calls, is very tough to overcome.
Mr. Jorde should be ashamed of himself. He calls himself a tough hockey player that everyone fears...what a joke. Did anyone see him lay a body in front of the net, behind the net, in the corners, coming up the ice, anything? His play has been shameful. Jorde lovers around me tonight even commented on how it looked as if he was scared because he was trying to avoid contact.
Galbraith and Miller...these guys play the game the way it was intended to be played. Heart, Hustle, and never give up. Pulcrapski goes to sleep on the bench way too often. There was a five minute stretch in the last part of the 3rd where Kelly didn't get a shift. How does this happen when he is a guy that skates hard and makes plays. I will never understand where The Chiefs head is sometimes.
If you're going to call a tight game, then you have to call it tight both ways. If you don't , then you're either biased or incompetent.
Oh, and a couple of those dives were so obvious, even *I* could spot them. Come on, if that really was cross checking in the third, then Ed Campbell is Superman. The Icehog he *tapped* was launched like he was hit by a bus.
i thought I would never say this, but im sick of watching the same mistakes over and over again...why doesn't anyone help frenchy out..the 5th should of never happened...where the hell were all the freakin dmen...i'm ready for this season to end...I'm literally sick of it...please bring in some players who care about playing Fort Wayne Komet hockey..
I just wrote a long post about this on ITB so I will give you the short of it.
Check out this rule:
http://www.nhl.com/hockeyu/rulebook/rule30.html
The penalty shot call was correct. You dont have to have the puck or even have to have a breakaway. It is rarely called that way, but its a rule.
All 3 calls leading to the 3 quick Hogs goals were correct. Campbell high sticked him in the face clearly and drew blood. I dont know how anyone can argue that call. Also the St. Pierre penalty and penalty shot calls were both correct. He also should have gave St. pierre a misconduct for shooting the puck at him.
Christopher did miss some other calls in the game, both ways. But the ones leading to the Rockford goals in the 2nd period were correct calls.
Sorry guys
I was going to comment but I think everybody said what I was thinking. Well put though.
I feel this was the worst playoff officiated game I have ever seen and there were some called on Rockford that you scratched your head. With that being said, Bottom line here is Rockford is too talented hockey club for the K's top to bottom. The K's played hard at times, but the end result was we do not match up with them. Last night we hung on to win tonight we dug ourselves a big hole. The first goal by Watson, IMO, is on Frenchy he should have stayed in the net. I am going to say this PC can pack his bags and go. He is not a all around hockey player and he has missed putting the puck in the net the last 2 nights and they were open net shots. I bet his plus/minus rating is near the worst on the team in this playoff. Say what you want about Big Snake, Johnson, Watson, etc...these guys have it all and put the puck in the net and set up goals. We do not have an answear for Tibbetts either. We should not be surprise at all. The K's play with effort and at times grit, but talent wise we do not compare with or without Chaulk. The series is not over and we do have a slim, slim chance, but the chances of us winning 3 in a row is very unlikely.
Hit if you read between the lines, I wasn't backing him. I will make the point again that there is a reason that a guy working the championship game in a low level league has not moved on/up. It says alot about the quality of the officials in the entire league that the "best" in the league aren't moving anywhere.
I turned on the NHL playoffs tonight and who was one of the refs? Remember Dean Warren from the IHL?
C'mon, Frenchy slashed Tibbetts directly in front of Christopher. The penalty shot is debatable, but at the very least it should have been an additional tripping call. Campbell took a baseball swing at Notermann. Any time you swing around like that, contact or not, it should be a call. You can't dispute that there should have been three calls right there and that was the three Rockford goals that made it 4-0.
End of story. The Komets themselves were even talking about how they keep doing this. They disputed the penalty shot, but not that it shouldn't have been a tripping. That would have left the Komets facing a 5-on-3 for about four minutes and it's likely the same thing would have happened.
Rockford was the highest penalty minute average in the league during the regular season, yet the IceHogs have four more power play chances in this series? Who's fault is that? The Komets AVERAGED one fewer pp chance than their opponents per game in the regular season. That is totally their fault.
As the coach said, ``You can take good aggressive penalties but we
and speaking of PC...has anyone seen him...I haven't...
As far as the series goes, Rockford was the better team all season, had quite a few more points than the Komets. The Komets winning this series would have been an upset. I don't count them out but it can't be an honest shock to any of us if they don't win this series.
Hey David, are you secretly a Rockford fan? Sounds like it to me. P.C. will be back next year so I'd probably hold off on packing his bags. As for it being unlikely that we win can we all take a trip on memory lane to last season. That's all I need to say.
The thing is, I still think the Komets have a chance because they have Frenchy, and he's capable of winning three games almost by himself. Does anyone think this is a significantly better Rockford team than last year? How about the goaltending?
One veteran player to keep next year: Kelly Miller
One veteran player to boot: PC Drouin....
I'd take a team full of Kelly Miller's, he leaves it all on the ice and you never question his heart and grit out there. That is Komet hockey. That is what we want out there. Not guys that give BS interviews about how everyone fears him. That guy plays afraid out there. Big tall strong guy who turns to avoid making contact...that's pitiful.
I think Rockford is a better team than last year, all around, except goaltending. The problem is not so much that as it is, the Komets are not as good a team this year as they were last.
Big difference this year from last is the home/away situation is reversed.
So a guy has an off night........wait the whole team has an off night and all of a sudden its get rid of P.C. wow what a bunch of people we have supporting our team when everybody said it was the officials not the team who lost it. I hope P.C does go somewhere else maybe he won't have fans that bag on him so much. I'd just be glad that we have a hockey team in Fort Wayne at all. For that matter I hope Guinn and Jorde go better places also they can't seem to do anything right in the eyes of these so called fans of the komets.
So heather sounds like you are dateing all three of them guys. YOU GO GIRL!!!
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME PC HAS SCORED?
Did everybody else score this game?
Don't forget the rule of the blog: If you are going to rip an official, then you have to name one who you think does a good job. It's too easy just to rip all the time.
Heather I think folks are a little emotional right now. It is typical in sports that especially during the playoffs when a team is in danger of elimination to play the "what have you done for me lately" card. P.C., Jorde and Guinn have been 3 of the most dependable Komets all season. Everyone knows that. Right now there is alot of frustration because nobody wants the season to be over.
Ok Blake. Where is Adam Fish? A good young official who should move out of this league within the next couple of years.... UH-OH guys like him leave and you are left with....well.....you know...
Well for these people to rip one guy when the whole team lost the game just goes to show people are sore losers. He may not have scored lately but there's a lot of those guys right?
Anybody seen Luciuk? How about Goodwin? Rumble? The entire team isn't playing up to par, not just a guy here or there. They win as a team and lose as a team, and that's never been more true that this season.
ALL the officials in the nextel cup.
I agree with Blake on that one. Thanks for the reassurance that these people are in the wrong to blame just one guy.
Funny thing is, I think folks are getting what they wanted. Instead of doing what Domber did, turtle/back away and sucker the other team into taking penalties, the Komets are doing the exact opposite.
Speaking of Domber, 2 more points tonight...