Quote:
Originally Posted by Knightslayer
Haven't seen many people mention the refereeing. It was awful and Elliote friedman nailed it right on the head. Refs were looking to make calls. NHL has a huge reffing problem. Time for the old boys club to be taken down.
Also turtle Kassian sure was acting like a coward last night.
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I'm not going to say poor officiating is what sank the Flames last night, but some of those calls and non-calls are definitely head-scratchers. Some consistency would be nice. Two refs are supposed to be better than one, right? The quality of the officiating seems to have severely deteriorated. However, you won't find too many fanbases that like the reffing.
Concerning Gudbranson, I was quite pleased with his overall performance. He and his defense partner did well in their roles in game 1. It's a long season so let's see how this goes. At least, he's off on the right foot. I too did not understand or agree with the signing this summer. My hope was that he would be our new version of Deryk Engelland, a big solid D-man who played within himself, took take of his teammates, play physical and limit scoring chances, limiting his own mistakes in the process. Being a veteran player and playing the way he has during his career, I'm sure Sutter's message to him and his expectations were clear. Now, he could crap the bed and be a liability on most nights, but playing within Sutter's system may just be right up his alley. Only time will tell.
Overall, I thought the guys did some really good things 5 vs 5. The PK will have to perform better than it did last night. Looking forward to see how they do with a more complete lineup. I would love nothing more than to see Tkachuk show that he is well worth 9+ mill/season. It will take more than what he showed last night, but it is still only 1 game. I look forward to see how this plays out.
Go get 'em on Monday!