Note: I'm about to do something that's frowned upon and avoided majorly in the blogging world. I'm about to do something no blogger should ever do if they care about their reputation and credibility. I'm about to do something I'll eventually regret.
I'm about to blog while upset.
I just finished watching game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals and there is a lot to write about. But tonight, I'll focus on my feelings as a Devils fan.
So I'll mock the Kings. I'll mock the LA media and the fans. I'll bash the officiating. And I'll make excuses for losing.
I'll probably get around to posting something legitimate tomorrow about the Kings winning.
So if you want to read that, come by tomorrow. If you want to nod your head in agreement as I unprofessionally degrade the Kings season, then read on!
Where to start?
Well I'll start off by relaying something that I wrote on May 30th (the night of game 1) on my phone. While watching the first few minutes of game 1, I had this feeling that no matter what the Devils did this round, the real beauty of these playoffs would be what came beforehand. If we won the Cup, it'd be "that time we won the Cup after demolishing Philly and then gaining revenge on the Rangers". If we lost the Cup, it'd be "that time we demolished Philly and then gained revenge on the Rangers".
So to make those feelings official and not just some cover up after losing the Cup, I wrote it down.
I can't take a screen cap on my phone nor can I get a good picture of it. So I'll just type it down and you'll have to take my word for it.
"If Devils lose, I'll be okay with it. The two big wins against rivals including getting revenge for 1994 (when the Rangers beat the Devils to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals), for me, is enough. Great season boys."
So looking back at this season, it's not a year of frustration or failure. It's more of a year of unexpected success.
Now on towards their matchup with LA. As the TV ratings indicated, this wasn't exactly an appealing series. Impartial fans were not drawn AT ALL towards the matchup. And it didn't help that there were literally 0 storylines to run with. If LA had finished off the sweep of New Jersey, people could have played along with the fact that the Kings dominated all postseason and ran with it in the playoffs. But instead, they won in the least impressive way imaginable. They were already exposed as humans who knew how to lose and that lost their shine.
Let's take a look back at the last several Stanley Cup Winners, shall we?
The Boston market is one fueled with passionate fans and that led to all the attention they received. Additionally, their Stanley Cup drought of 39 straight years added to the tale of the championship team.
As for the LA market, there's no way that they are as close to the passion of the Boston fans. LA was distracted with other playoff runs and then never truly hopped on the wagon. And because of that, their Cup drought of 45 years (their whole existence) isn't even a topic of discussion given the lack of caring.
In 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks were much like the Boston Bruins. A large sports market with passionate fans who wanted to win the Cup after all those years (49 year drought). Once again, the Kings didn't have that type of following and therefore, their own drought didn't play a role in their story.
Similar story with Pittsburgh. Same with Detroit. And then we'll skip over Anaheim and Carolina due to them being flukes.
The King fans were literally faker than Taylor Stevens' lovely breasts which seemed to get too much air time. It appeared that half of the people wanting the Kings to win were Ranger fans who were pissed off that the Devils kicked their asses in the earlier round. But that was how the following of the Kings went. They always had room for more. Even Conan O'Brien took a shot at the weak following.
Enough about the fans. Now on towards the media.
I already have a post documenting the awful coverage they gave for the 2 or 3 fans in the area. They butchered names, mixed up characters, and just embarrassed themselves at every given moment.
So, I suggest you read this article about the media. It's worth a good laugh or two:
http://robinsnest-yoro.blogspot.com/2012/06/los-angeles-starting-to-notice-kings.html
Alright so now to the team. Sure they dominated the first three rounds. But seriously. A Daniel Sedin-less Canucks is like playing Pittsburgh Pirates if they don't have outfielders. The Canucks were next-to-clueless out there without their offensive leader.
Next came the young and inexperienced Blues, who, by the way, had Brian Elliot in net. Yes, the same guy that was almost laughed out of Ottawa for his suck-y play.
And then the Kings owned the Coyotes (it's about time someone owned them). Ya the team without any offense and who lost all their discipline crumbled mightily to the "hot" Los Angeles team.
But then they played the Devils.
After 2 games that could have gone either way, the media world already declared their Cup winners.
Right. Good call.
Then the Kings finally earned a win and after that even more media/fans declared the series over.
But as I posted, the Devils had other plans.
Once the Devils won games 4 and 5 you saw several things. People start to doubt the Kings. They felt that now that they finally faced adversity, they'll crumble apart. And you also saw LA people wanting the series to end so they can stop their fake-following that's undoubtedly been strenuous on them all.
But most importantly, we saw people start pulling for the Devils. Like I said, the storylines that existed were all boring as hell and the Devils were finally adding spice to the series.
But then the refs got in the way.
I'm not normally one to criticize officiating in the NHL. Reffing is most likely the hardest profession out there. If anyone has ever sat along the glass at an NHL game, they know how fast the game moves. The refs have to keep up while still needing to see everything going on. It's expected that they'll make mistakes.
I also always say that officiating doesn't blow games for teams. If a team blames a loss on the refs, there's more to the story. Usually, it's the team that gets themselves into the position to lose. Like if a team loses 4-3 and they give up a powerplay goal in the final minute of the game and blame the loss on the ref, they're forgetting the previous 59 minutes of game play that they didn't do enough to win in.
But tonight is entirely different.
Because tonight, the refs LITERALLY, DIRECTLY led to the first 4 goals in the game. Now try not blaming the refs on a 4 goal deficit, something you had no control over.
So I'm sure some of my readers are calling BS on my claims. So I'll back up my words. Here's the end of the Devils 2011-2012 NHL season, in one convenient clip.
I'm sorry. I just vomited from the lameness of it all.
I'll start with the call on Bernier. According to the NHL rule book, a 5 minute major is imposed due to the discretion of the referees. They take into consideration the severity of the hit (e.g. how dirty it was, how banged up the player is, etc.), and more importantly, the vulnerability of the defending player. If the player throws himself into a vulnerable position right before a hit, then it's just a minor penalty for boarding, not 5 minutes in the box.
Look at the video. In the replays, you clearly see Rob Scuderi twist right before impact to make the play with the puck, putting his back right to the oncoming Steve Bernier who's ALREADY COMMITTED TO THE HIT!!!!
If you can't see this in the video evidence, I'm sorry for your retardation/blindness. But it's clear as day that the refs got this one wrong and unrightfully gave the Kings a 5 minute man advantage in the first 10 minutes of the game.
But wait, there's more.
Literally 5 seconds before Bernier's hit, Jarret Stoll hit Stephen Gionta from behind and into the boards....hmmm...sounds like the rule 41.1 in the NHL rule book.
To answer your question, no it doesn't matter that Gionta wasn't checked into glass. He was hit. From behind. Into the boards. (Yes, AND it was a late hit, just to add onto the list).
So let's see here. If the refs saw the clear-as-day boarding call on Stoll, I'm pretty certain Bernier wouldn't have forechecked so hard and boarded Scuderi. He most likely would have recognized that his team was going on the man advantage and that the whistle would be blown once Scuderi touches the puck anyway.
But let's just say, for arguments sake, that Bernier would have made the hit anyway. And let's just say that the refs stuck with their borderline-correct 5 minute major call. This would have led to a 4-4 for 2 of the 5 minutes rather than the 5-4 for 5 full minutes that the Kings had. And something's telling me that this would have made a HUGE difference.
And instead, the Kings were gift wrapped a 3 goal lead after 1 period.
But the refs weren't done yet. A 3 goal lead is a lot but a comeback is definitely possible. Which was why the Kings signed linesman Pierre Racicot for one shift.
And he did his job.
Never before have I seen a referee have such an affect on a play. Not only does he interfere with defenseman Anton Volchenkov during a play. He literally sets a pick on Volchenkov, giving Brown all the room in the world to work with the puck. And by the way, the Kings scored moments later.
I'm sure many of you are saying, "Hey, the goal didn't come immediately afterward. The Devils had plenty of time to regroup!" To which I'd respond, "How ignorant are you? Do you know anything about hockey? Are you a New York sports radio host?" Once Volchenkov was taken out of the play, Brown was able to dip right in on Brodeur, a path that would have almost definitely been blocked off by the veteran Volchenkov. After that chance, you saw 2 things. You saw the middle of the ice open up as the Devils tried to make up for the loss coverage on Volchenkov's side of the ice. But you also saw, and something more important, was the Devils players needing to chase the puck.
The Devils had to make up for the blown coverage and began chasing the puck around and that led to the goal.
4-0. On the road. And there was literally NOTHING they could do about it.
An hour later. The game was over. The Kings won. And now the billions of inexperienced hockey fans (ESPN analysts included) who blindly chose the Kings in 6 (best odds at this, being 3/1) get to pat themselves on the back for being correct in something they don't care about.
But don't worry.
In a week we'll all forget about this, anyway.
(Oh, and by the way, suck it Philly)
And just cuz I'm able to,
I'm about to blog while upset.
I just finished watching game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals and there is a lot to write about. But tonight, I'll focus on my feelings as a Devils fan.
So I'll mock the Kings. I'll mock the LA media and the fans. I'll bash the officiating. And I'll make excuses for losing.
I'll probably get around to posting something legitimate tomorrow about the Kings winning.
So if you want to read that, come by tomorrow. If you want to nod your head in agreement as I unprofessionally degrade the Kings season, then read on!
Where to start?
Well I'll start off by relaying something that I wrote on May 30th (the night of game 1) on my phone. While watching the first few minutes of game 1, I had this feeling that no matter what the Devils did this round, the real beauty of these playoffs would be what came beforehand. If we won the Cup, it'd be "that time we won the Cup after demolishing Philly and then gaining revenge on the Rangers". If we lost the Cup, it'd be "that time we demolished Philly and then gained revenge on the Rangers".
So to make those feelings official and not just some cover up after losing the Cup, I wrote it down.
I can't take a screen cap on my phone nor can I get a good picture of it. So I'll just type it down and you'll have to take my word for it.
"If Devils lose, I'll be okay with it. The two big wins against rivals including getting revenge for 1994 (when the Rangers beat the Devils to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals), for me, is enough. Great season boys."
So looking back at this season, it's not a year of frustration or failure. It's more of a year of unexpected success.
Now on towards their matchup with LA. As the TV ratings indicated, this wasn't exactly an appealing series. Impartial fans were not drawn AT ALL towards the matchup. And it didn't help that there were literally 0 storylines to run with. If LA had finished off the sweep of New Jersey, people could have played along with the fact that the Kings dominated all postseason and ran with it in the playoffs. But instead, they won in the least impressive way imaginable. They were already exposed as humans who knew how to lose and that lost their shine.
Let's take a look back at the last several Stanley Cup Winners, shall we?
The Boston market is one fueled with passionate fans and that led to all the attention they received. Additionally, their Stanley Cup drought of 39 straight years added to the tale of the championship team.
As for the LA market, there's no way that they are as close to the passion of the Boston fans. LA was distracted with other playoff runs and then never truly hopped on the wagon. And because of that, their Cup drought of 45 years (their whole existence) isn't even a topic of discussion given the lack of caring.
In 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks were much like the Boston Bruins. A large sports market with passionate fans who wanted to win the Cup after all those years (49 year drought). Once again, the Kings didn't have that type of following and therefore, their own drought didn't play a role in their story.
Similar story with Pittsburgh. Same with Detroit. And then we'll skip over Anaheim and Carolina due to them being flukes.
The King fans were literally faker than Taylor Stevens' lovely breasts which seemed to get too much air time. It appeared that half of the people wanting the Kings to win were Ranger fans who were pissed off that the Devils kicked their asses in the earlier round. But that was how the following of the Kings went. They always had room for more. Even Conan O'Brien took a shot at the weak following.
I already have a post documenting the awful coverage they gave for the 2 or 3 fans in the area. They butchered names, mixed up characters, and just embarrassed themselves at every given moment.
So, I suggest you read this article about the media. It's worth a good laugh or two:
http://robinsnest-yoro.blogspot.com/2012/06/los-angeles-starting-to-notice-kings.html
Alright so now to the team. Sure they dominated the first three rounds. But seriously. A Daniel Sedin-less Canucks is like playing Pittsburgh Pirates if they don't have outfielders. The Canucks were next-to-clueless out there without their offensive leader.
Next came the young and inexperienced Blues, who, by the way, had Brian Elliot in net. Yes, the same guy that was almost laughed out of Ottawa for his suck-y play.
And then the Kings owned the Coyotes (it's about time someone owned them). Ya the team without any offense and who lost all their discipline crumbled mightily to the "hot" Los Angeles team.
But then they played the Devils.
After 2 games that could have gone either way, the media world already declared their Cup winners.
Right. Good call.
Then the Kings finally earned a win and after that even more media/fans declared the series over.
But as I posted, the Devils had other plans.
Once the Devils won games 4 and 5 you saw several things. People start to doubt the Kings. They felt that now that they finally faced adversity, they'll crumble apart. And you also saw LA people wanting the series to end so they can stop their fake-following that's undoubtedly been strenuous on them all.
But most importantly, we saw people start pulling for the Devils. Like I said, the storylines that existed were all boring as hell and the Devils were finally adding spice to the series.
But then the refs got in the way.
I'm not normally one to criticize officiating in the NHL. Reffing is most likely the hardest profession out there. If anyone has ever sat along the glass at an NHL game, they know how fast the game moves. The refs have to keep up while still needing to see everything going on. It's expected that they'll make mistakes.
I also always say that officiating doesn't blow games for teams. If a team blames a loss on the refs, there's more to the story. Usually, it's the team that gets themselves into the position to lose. Like if a team loses 4-3 and they give up a powerplay goal in the final minute of the game and blame the loss on the ref, they're forgetting the previous 59 minutes of game play that they didn't do enough to win in.
But tonight is entirely different.
Because tonight, the refs LITERALLY, DIRECTLY led to the first 4 goals in the game. Now try not blaming the refs on a 4 goal deficit, something you had no control over.
So I'm sure some of my readers are calling BS on my claims. So I'll back up my words. Here's the end of the Devils 2011-2012 NHL season, in one convenient clip.
I'll start with the call on Bernier. According to the NHL rule book, a 5 minute major is imposed due to the discretion of the referees. They take into consideration the severity of the hit (e.g. how dirty it was, how banged up the player is, etc.), and more importantly, the vulnerability of the defending player. If the player throws himself into a vulnerable position right before a hit, then it's just a minor penalty for boarding, not 5 minutes in the box.
Look at the video. In the replays, you clearly see Rob Scuderi twist right before impact to make the play with the puck, putting his back right to the oncoming Steve Bernier who's ALREADY COMMITTED TO THE HIT!!!!
If you can't see this in the video evidence, I'm sorry for your retardation/blindness. But it's clear as day that the refs got this one wrong and unrightfully gave the Kings a 5 minute man advantage in the first 10 minutes of the game.
But wait, there's more.
Literally 5 seconds before Bernier's hit, Jarret Stoll hit Stephen Gionta from behind and into the boards....hmmm...sounds like the rule 41.1 in the NHL rule book.
To answer your question, no it doesn't matter that Gionta wasn't checked into glass. He was hit. From behind. Into the boards. (Yes, AND it was a late hit, just to add onto the list).
So let's see here. If the refs saw the clear-as-day boarding call on Stoll, I'm pretty certain Bernier wouldn't have forechecked so hard and boarded Scuderi. He most likely would have recognized that his team was going on the man advantage and that the whistle would be blown once Scuderi touches the puck anyway.
But let's just say, for arguments sake, that Bernier would have made the hit anyway. And let's just say that the refs stuck with their borderline-correct 5 minute major call. This would have led to a 4-4 for 2 of the 5 minutes rather than the 5-4 for 5 full minutes that the Kings had. And something's telling me that this would have made a HUGE difference.
And instead, the Kings were gift wrapped a 3 goal lead after 1 period.
But the refs weren't done yet. A 3 goal lead is a lot but a comeback is definitely possible. Which was why the Kings signed linesman Pierre Racicot for one shift.
And he did his job.
Never before have I seen a referee have such an affect on a play. Not only does he interfere with defenseman Anton Volchenkov during a play. He literally sets a pick on Volchenkov, giving Brown all the room in the world to work with the puck. And by the way, the Kings scored moments later.
I'm sure many of you are saying, "Hey, the goal didn't come immediately afterward. The Devils had plenty of time to regroup!" To which I'd respond, "How ignorant are you? Do you know anything about hockey? Are you a New York sports radio host?" Once Volchenkov was taken out of the play, Brown was able to dip right in on Brodeur, a path that would have almost definitely been blocked off by the veteran Volchenkov. After that chance, you saw 2 things. You saw the middle of the ice open up as the Devils tried to make up for the loss coverage on Volchenkov's side of the ice. But you also saw, and something more important, was the Devils players needing to chase the puck.
The Devils had to make up for the blown coverage and began chasing the puck around and that led to the goal.
4-0. On the road. And there was literally NOTHING they could do about it.
 |
| The officiating crew from tonight deserve to get their names on the cup! |
An hour later. The game was over. The Kings won. And now the billions of inexperienced hockey fans (ESPN analysts included) who blindly chose the Kings in 6 (best odds at this, being 3/1) get to pat themselves on the back for being correct in something they don't care about.
But don't worry.
In a week we'll all forget about this, anyway.
(Oh, and by the way, suck it Philly)
And just cuz I'm able to,
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