I mean honestly, I see worse calls than that in the NHL on a pretty frequent basis.
The whole tweet reads like a bit of a reach. Sure, there may be extremely preferential treatment to that team, but I guess I would expect it to a certain degree in that league. There has been cases of preferential treatment in the NHL before too (see: Detroit circa mid-90s through 2000s), but not made quite as obvious.
While we love to hate Russia and Putin specifically, this seems like a bit of a non-story.
penalty calls 24 to 0 is simple preferential treatment? I mean maybe the league had some Red Wing bias in their heyday, but if that type of calling ever happened in an NHL playoff game, plus an obvious blown offside on the game winner, I think that would be looked at with just a bit more scrutiny.
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penalty calls 24 to 0 is simple preferential treatment? I mean maybe the league had some Red Wing bias in their heyday, but if that type of calling ever happened in an NHL playoff game, plus an obvious blown offside on the game winner, I think that would be looked at with just a bit more scrutiny.
I looked up the boxscore to see how the penalties were distributed. Here's a quick summary:
First, there was a 10 minute misconduct in the second, so SKA had 7 power plays to 0 for Severstal.
1 powerplay in the first period (which SKA scored on to make it 1-0)
1 powerplay in the second period which was killed.
In the third, with Severstal leading (for the first time) 2-1, Severstal got:
-penalty at 1:12 (killed)
-10 minute misconduct at 3:12
-penalty at 10:14 (3 minutes after SKA tied it to make it 2-2)
-penalty at 14:02 (killed), though SKA scored to make it 3-2 1 second after the penalty expired
-penalty at 19:50 (46 seconds after Severstal tied it to make it 3-3)
That last penalty carried over into overtime, and was killed. Then Severstal was penalized again at 6:03 of OT, during which the winning goal was scored.
Shots on goal were 46-17 in the end, with Severstal tying the game late in the 3rd on their only shot of that period. Severstal was outshot 26-2 in periods 3 and in OT, during which Severstal was shorthanded for about 1/3 of the time.
Last edited by psyang; 03-08-2018 at 12:51 PM.
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First I've read of this, found it an interesting if disturbing read... Seems that the KHL hierarchy, referees and Putin are conspiring to ensure SKA wins the title this season and not really attempting to hide it much.
This undermines the credibility of this league in a major way at a time when teams are already hesitating to draft players coming up through their system.
The team that was allegedly conspired by Putin himself to win the title has just lost in the semis.
... To the one other "acceptable" team (from the original story)...
Quote:
There is a slight possibility of a loss, if the opponent is CSKA, owning to the Moscow team’s legacy and the “patriotic value” of their potential victory, but it’s a small chance.
__________________
Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
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To be fair both SKA St Petersburg and CSKA Moscow have been the powerhouses of the league for the past 3 years. Not a surprise one of them is in the Gagarin Cup final.
Still disappointed because I felt Jokerit could have pulled the upset against both of them.
... To the one other "acceptable" team (from the original story)...
Well, the full quote is
"There is a slight possibility of a loss, if the opponent is CSKA, owning to the Moscow team’s legacy and the “patriotic value” of their potential victory, but it’s a small chance. Putin wants SKA, and SKA it shall be…"
SKA and CSKA are like Golden State and Houston in the NBA. The author makes that caveat about "small chance" as if his point still stands if CSKA wins, but I don't see the reasoning. The team that was allegedly picked by Putin lost. That makes the whole point about how the whole league is fixed kinda moot.
And all the evidence at the first place was a blown offside call in the OT. While the call was indeed blown, it is still weird that the refs let an allegedly fixed game into OT where any bounce can change the result. Then there is also one game with 24-0 penalty minutes, which of course is suspicious, but I can't bother to watch a meaningless game just to make an informed opinion. At worst, that particular game may had been fixed, but not the whole league.
Last edited by Pointman; 04-08-2018 at 11:04 PM.
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While we are at it, following the loss Kovalchuk said that he is coming back to the USA. He said USA, not NHL, so he probably will not consider Calgary.