[united]

It happens in all sports. Heck, the Seahawks even admitted they won a Superbowl, and made another, using a strategy of committing penalties on every play knowing the officials would just stop calling penalties on them out of fear of optics. It works brilliantly. They cheated every play knowing they would get away with it much of the time, especially in the fourth quarter, because the officials are humans. Sure they had a lopsided penalty differential (which, of course they whined about), but if the officials called the game without emotion they would have had many more penalties and probably wouldn't have won the Superbowl or made the other. Sure it hurts them at the start of games...but when your team gets flagged for 12 penalties of the 30 you commit while your opponent gets flagged for 10 of the 15 they commit, you have the advantage.

As soon as Perry went down, you knew the next time a Flames player even grazed a Ducks player they were getting a penalty. Sure enough, Backlund gives a Ducks player a love tap that happens tens of times every minute in the NHL and off he goes to the box.