Kerry Fraser's reply to my Gaudreau empty net question

[Toonage]

1) I will never forgive Kerry Fraser. Stealing a cup is worse than stealing a goal.
2) I agree with people saying that this isn't a conspiracy, but its a little suspicious

[EldrickOnIce]

Kerry Fraser is on TSN radio here in Montreal once a week with Chris Nilan.
Except for the Mitch Melnyk Daily 5 minute chats with former Expo pitcher Bill Lee, Fraser's segment is the best on radio right now.
Fraser pulls no punches there when evaluating correct interpretation of the rules by current officials, but maybe he is more careful in print.
I like Fraser a lot now... which is a 180 from when he wore the stripes.

[FanIn80]

This would have been riot-worthy had what's-his-face scored on that breakaway immediately after the PP faceoff, and the Sharks won in OT.

[Frank MetaMusil]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I know everyone likes to blame Wideman but I wonder if it's deeper than that. The Flames publicly disagreed with the suspension and were pretty outspoken throughout the process with comments made by both Treliving and Burke. It's possible the officials have taken that personally and the Flames in their mind have downplayed the severity of the incident.

Since the fiasco the Flames have gone from one of the least penalized team to the most penalized team despite very little in roster turnover (although Tkachuk has certainly added a fair bit but that's somewhat cancelled out by the fact he draws more penalties). I'm not wearing a tin foil hat and am not screaming that its a conspiracy but it certainly appears most nights the Flames are not getting the benefit of the doubt when it comes to penalty calls as Wednesday was garbage officiating and it seems we have seen more of that this season than years past.

The Flames are taking 5 penalties/game on average, which is top of the league. They have 74 more minor penalties than San Jose with an extra 2GP.

I've also noticed this season, it's taking them well into the second period before they get their first powerplay. Vancouver, San Jose on Wednesday, there's a good sample size of games where this has happened.

I don't care if the Flames take penalties and they are legit. My issue is when the opponent doesn't even need to adhere to the rules, because they won't get called on it.

The Flames have had 2 or less powerplay opportunities in 16 of 44 games so far this season.

http://www.nhl.com/stats/team?aggreg...pOpportunities

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by mrdonkey

Thanks, Wideman!

[mrdonkey]

Originally Posted by squiggs96

[wired]

The NHL refs are a joke. They should have to do a conditioning stint in the minors if they consistently call bad games.

[Locke]

Bunch of thieving bastards!!

[drewtastic]

Originally Posted by Toonage

1) I will never forgive Kerry Fraser.

[Since1984]

Lou also disagrees with Kerry in his segment here:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/960/the-big-...dnesdays-game/

[SOMBRI2]

Could the mods open an honorary account for Mr. Fraser in this forum?

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Since1984

Lou also disagrees with Kerry in his segment here:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/960/the-big-...dnesdays-game/

I love Lou but his rule interpretation was flat out wrong.

Also, when you have two people shedding light on it, one a retired referee and the other a professional commentator, who are you going to listen to?

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

I love Lou but his rule interpretation was flat out wrong.

Also, when you have two people shedding light on it, one a retired referee and the other a professional commentator, who are you going to listen to?

the one who mirrors what I already think, duh.

[Lanny'sDaMan]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

the one who mirrors what I already think, duh.

Flash Walken, Ladies and Gentlemen. Dropping TruthBombs™ since dinosaurs.

[monkeyman]

Jeff Marek and Doug MacLean were just talking about the flames penalties comparing them to last year. speculating on weather it could have anything to do with the Wideman hit. MacLean:"something funny going on here". "I'd suspect the Calgary Flames have mentioned that to the league."
I hear it in Hrudey's voice too, he just seems puzzled sometimes by some of the calls.

[GoJetsGo]

Originally Posted by monkeyman

Jeff Marek and Doug MacLean were just talking about the flames penalties comparing them to last year. speculating on weather it could have anything to do with the Wideman hit. MacLean:"something funny going on here". "I'd suspect the Calgary Flames have mentioned that to the league."
I hear it in Hrudey's voice too, he just seems puzzled sometimes by some of the calls.

It's just as much the non-calls as the calls too.

It's like there was some pre-discussion about not calling anything on Gaudreau.

The disparity is blatantly obvious. Questionable play at checking the stick on Brodie = penalty shot late in that tie game. Obvious automatic-goal on Gaudreau play moments later = 2 min penalty. It's so see-through it's a joke.

[PepsiFree]

The Flames are enduring the most times shorthanded per game they've had as a team since 2009 at 3.71.

2006 - 5.05/19th
2007 - 4.74/29th
2008 - 4.26/20th
2009 - 3.72/13th
2010 - 3.44/13th
2011 - 3.27/14th
2012 - 3.15/11th
2013 - 2.87/3rd
2014 - 2.27/1st
2015 - 2.84/5th (2.40 pre-Wideman hit, 3.11 post-Wideman hit)
2016 - 3.71/29th

They've got the worst league ranking they've had since 2007. You could say there's nothing to it, but it's notable to me that it's the biggest single season jump at 0.87 per game (which is even more noteworthy if you consider their shorthanded events per game before the Wideman hit in 2015). The next biggest difference of the last 10 years being a 0.60 decrease between 13 and 14.

[DazzlinDino]

Originally Posted by GoJetsGo

It's just as much the non-calls as the calls too.

It's like there was some pre-discussion about not calling anything on Gaudreau.

The disparity is blatantly obvious. Questionable play at checking the stick on Brodie = penalty shot late in that tie game. Obvious automatic-goal on Gaudreau play moments later = 2 min penalty. It's so see-through it's a joke.

Don't forget the 21 slashes Gaudreau took despite numerous objections...

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by monkeyman

I hear it in Hrudey's voice too, he just seems puzzled sometimes by some of the calls.

Hrudey stated on HNIC earlier this year that there was no question the Flames started getting called for more penalties after the Wideman hit. He didn't explicitly say the two were directly related but you could infer that's what he was thinking.

[Clarkey]

It should only be a goal if it goes past the goal line, with the net on and play still on.