2009-10 Calgary Hitmen/WHL thread

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Fing hell. Wilson goes to throw a hip check, the Warrior tries to jump out of the way, they STILL make contact hip to hip, and Thiessen invents a clipping penalty. Moose Jaw gets another free goal on another phantom penalty.

Sorry dude, Moose Jaw isn't where they re because they have earned it. They are here because of crooked officiating.

The amount of Hitmen penalties in this series looks more like a basketball score

[Ducay]

Hitmen tie it up in the 2nd with a goal from Mischa (Kozun, Schultz)

[Berger]

Hitmen trailed 1-0 but have come back in the 2nd period to take the lead 2-1.
heres a link to the fan960 alternate feed with the game on the radio:
http://www.fan960.com/listen/alternate-feed.jsp

[Berger]

4-1 now. Looks like the Hitmen came to play tonight. Also refs sound to be brutal again but what else is new in the dub.

[moon]

Originally Posted by Trojan97

The refs haven't been great but they are far from the reason Calgary is on the brink of losing this series.

You have to remember the only reason the Hitman have ever lost is because of the refs.

nevermind the fact they are repeatedly handed PP after PP every season since they are the leagues "golden boys."

[Berger]

Originally Posted by moon

You have to remember the only reason the Hitman have ever lost is because of the refs.

nevermind the fact they are repeatedly handed PP after PP every season since they are the leagues "golden boys."

Golden Boys? Are they golden boys because they actually have strong management and scouting to field a competitive team each and every year unlike the Hurricanes?

[Resolute 14]

Don't mind Moon. He's still pissed that a team with "no talent" nearly became the greatest team in WHL history last year while his Memorial Cup champion Hurricanes missed the playoffs entirely.

[Super-Rye]

Originally Posted by moon

You have to remember the only reason the Hitman have ever lost is because of the refs.

nevermind the fact they are repeatedly handed PP after PP every season since they are the leagues "golden boys."

I hadn't seen a game in this series yet, and I went to the game last night thinking that the reffing couldn't be as bad as some have suggested to me...it was worse. Hitman players who didn't have the puck were molested and hauled down all night without one penalty called. At one point I watched a Warrior slash a Hitman's stick right out of his hands in front of the ref, no call. Yet the Hitmen were penalized (some good calls, some question marks like the hip check) until the 3rd period when one ref started to call the Warriors on some of their crap.

The Warrior are playing like Bush Leaguers out there and are apparently allowed to play like that. Either way I think the Hitmen have this series if they keep playing like they did last night. They looked really pissed off last night and started to take it out on the Warrior players with some big hits.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Super-Rye

I hadn't seen a game in this series yet, and I went to the game last night thinking that the reffing couldn't be as bad as some have suggested to me...it was worse. Hitman players who didn't have the puck were molested and hauled down all night without one penalty called. At one point I watched a Warrior slash a Hitman's stick right out of his hands in front of the ref, no call. Yet the Hitmen were penalized (some good calls, some question marks like the hip check) until the 3rd period when one ref started to call the Warriors on some of their crap.

The Warrior are playing like Bush Leaguers out there and are apparently allowed to play like that. Either way I think the Hitmen have this series if they keep playing like they did last night. They looked really pissed off last night and started to take it out on the Warrior players with some big hits.

That's exactly it. The boxscore the next day does not really illustrate how bad the officiating has been in this series. You have to witness it in person. The Hitmen get charging/clipping penalties for solid checks, the Warriors don't. It throws the Hitmen off their game because they cannot play as physical as they want while their opponents can continue to play as physical as they want. The calls have a much more dramatic effect on the game than merely the PP time alloted.

[speede5]

Having been to game 4 I can honestly say there were just as many missed calls on the Warriors as there were on the Hitmen. The Warriors simply out played them through the first 2 and hung on in the third. The officiating was no better or worse than any other WHL game.

The Hitmen coughed the puck up several times and looked like the 8th place team, while the Warriors just threw it all out and took chances, playing better hockey than they have for most of the year. The Warriors are playing like they have nothing to lose, making risky passes and pinching in hard, and it shows when Calgary opens up the score like last night.

I am not impressed they didn't close out, cause I can't make Saturday's game!!!

[Resolute 14]

The fans aren't the only ones unimpressed with the zebras.

http://www.calgarysun.com/sports/hoc.../13362266.html

The Hitmen continued to get no help from the officials.


Tyler Shattock picked up his third charging penalty of the series for throwing a hard hit two minutes in.


Hitmen sniper Joel Broda though he had slid a rebound under Bosch, but after a lengthy review, there was no clear evidence the puck crossed the line.


Calgary defenceman Ben Wilson was sent off for executing a textbook hip check late in the period and it proved costly.

Broda's non-goal was a tough call. Bosch stopped the puck with a pad that was in the net. Thiessen was simply on the wrong side of the net, so he couldn't see the puck in the net, and since it was under the goalie's pad, it was hidden from the cameras. The officials did make the right call under the circumstances, even if logic says the puck was in.


The interesting part of Shattock's penalty was how the Hitmen refused to let the officials dictate how they were going to play the game. They threw at least ten hits just as big as that one, not one of which was called. Bonnet called that first penalty exclusively because of LOUD NOISES!

[GrrlGoalie33]

As a fan of a WHL team, you expect the refing to be of lower quality/experience than watching an NHL game. Just as the players are young and trying to get noticed/drafted, the refs are often the same.

In Calgary this year, we have seen vastly differing reffing levels. Some good for Calgary, some bad, and some completely indifferent.

The reffing in the two home games I have seen (2&5) has been simply horrid, although game 5 was better than game 2. The reffing in the latter was hands-down the worst reffing I have seen in Calgary all year, period. For Calgary, against Calgary, it doesn't matter. The worst WHL reffing this city has seen all year.

That being said, I don't believe the refs are the sole reason the Hitmen are down in the series, although it certainly doesn't help their situation.

[Resolute 14]

Chris Savage called game two. You always get bad officiating when it comes to him; the only thing you don't know is which team is going to get hosed as a result.

[speede5]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Chris Savage called game two. You always get bad officiating when it comes to him; the only thing you don't know is which team is going to get hosed as a result.

Well we can agree on one thing at least.

[604flames]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Chris Savage called game two. You always get bad officiating when it comes to him; the only thing you don't know is which team is going to get hosed as a result.

Is there any ref in the WHL that one fanbase or another doesn't think is awful? Not calling you out, it's just something I've noticed lately.

[moon]

Originally Posted by Berger

Golden Boys? Are they golden boys because they actually have strong management and scouting to field a competitive team each and every year unlike the Hurricanes?

No they are the golden boys because the league favors them.

And doing better than the pathetic Hurricanes.

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Don't mind Moon. He's still pissed that a team with "no talent" nearly became the greatest team in WHL history last year while his Memorial Cup champion Hurricanes missed the playoffs entirely.

Not pissed at all and not surprised at all that the Hurricanes missed the play-offs. I said at the start of the season that they would.

Also not sure how the Hitman came even close to being the greatest team in WHL or how they had no talent, little talent for sure but not no talent.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by 604flames

Is there any ref in the WHL that one fanbase or another doesn't think is awful? Not calling you out, it's just something I've noticed lately.

Probably not, heh. That Savage sucks is a universally held opinion though.

Of the refs I see regularly in Calgary, I think Skilleter has good potential - he generally calls the play well, but he's still learning to read the plays as they come directly towards him. He gets in the way of too many pucks. Thompson and Crowley I don't usually mind, game 1 notwithstanding. Kirk's decent enough.

[604flames]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Kirk's decent enough.

I don't know who Giants fans dislike more, him or Herman.

Never been a big Thiessen guy, especially since we had a nice argument when I was coaching womens' rec hockey, and I don't see enough of Cowley. What happened to Cory McLean?

[jschick88]

Herman by far is the worst ref in the WHL.

[Resolute 14]

GREAT start for the Hitmen tonight. Bubnick and Cowan with their first each, and Jones has stopped a couple golorious chances in the first. 2-0 Calgary after 1.