I don't want to blame officiating for the Flames being down 2-1 in this series as they haven't played well but I feel the officiating in this series has been different than some of the other series. Some of the other series they are letting them play but in this series everything is being called and you can see some biases in the Gaudreau unsportsmanlike call in game two. That was not a dive but the official had it in his head that Gaudreau is a diver and was waiting to call that penalty on him. It's pretty rare to see a full 2 minute 5 on 3 but with one official already with his hands up for a too many men penalty the other decided that a marginal hook warranted the Flames being down by two men. After the inevitable 1-0 Avalanche lead Hathaway is full marks for a bad holding penalty which leads to 2-0 and then things snowballed and it was just going to be one of those games. The good thing is that in the playoffs the only thing matters is the result so you can argue getting blown out is a bigger wake-up call than losing another game like game two where they didn't play well but the game was close enough where they could fool themselves into thinking they are close. They haven't been close as there's a massive disparity between effort levels and intensity between these two teams and that has to change in game four.
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