Crappy situation. The reffing sucks, but we've all known that for years. Nothing is going to happen or change. Absolutely nothing. All the refs have to say is ''we didn't see it'' and life goes on.
So what can the team do? As others have said, it comes down to team toughness. And sad to say, other then Engelland and a couple of the grinders like Hathaway or Ferland, no one does sweet #### all.
The day this team lost it's toughness was the day Lee Stempniak got beat up by Ference and no one did anything. And for whatever reason, that has tricked down through the entire organization. Did the coach have anything to say about the hacks? Did Gio get in the refs faces? Hard to tell from the TV angles, but they don't get the benefit of the doubt based on how this season has gone.
And so here we are. We all knew the day would come when finally that one slash hits Gaudreau in the wrong spot and he's out for a period of time. This is what happens when your team doesn't stand up for each other. Other teams think you're a joke and will gladly risk taking a penalty if it means taking a star player out.
I'm not going to blame the refs. I'm not even going to blame the Wild players who hacked away. I'm blaming the victims, and in this case it's the Flames' team who did nothing to address it, and have done nothing to address it the past few seasons.
Now everyone around the league knows that you don't bother trying to hit Gaudreau. Instead you slash him and most likely you'll get away with it and he might be taken out of the game. Great.
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