Sutter blames officiating for loss to Leafs, insinuates that the NHL conspired with the Leafs last night
Saturday's game between the Leafs and Flames was a barn burner, with the Leafs squeezing out an overtime victory over their western Canadian rivals. The Flames found themselves shorthanded 6 times during the game. Toronto was able to score 3 times with the man advantage, including the overtime winner.
During his post game comments, Sutter all but accused the referees and the league of being biased towards the Leafs. It's a laughable notion for any Leafs fan, but Alberta always seems to think Ontario gets special treatment. Why would they view hockey any differently?
- Darryl Sutter on the officiating on Saturday Night
Looking at the calls that led to power plays for the Leafs, there really wasn't anything that stood out as a soft call. The officials negated a Leafs power play with a soft roughing call on Wayne Simmonds early, which led to the Flames goal. They also managed to turn a 4-minute high sticking penalty into a 2 minute power play by giving Michael Bunting the only roughing call in a scrum that involved 3 flames going after the Scarborough native. Don't forget the Toronto based review room allowing a goal to stand even though the puck crossed the line after the whistle. It may be in the rulebook, but I've personally never seen that rule applied. As for the power play in overtime, you are not allowed to hit an opponent in the face with your stick. Huberdeau made a mistake, and it cost his team the win.
Objectively, Sutter has no leg to stand on in this situation. The officiating was certainly confusing at times, but to say that it was slanted towards the Leafs is just plain wrong. If Sutter wants to blame someone, he can look to his players and their lack of discipline. As a well-respected coach and one of the elder statesmen of the league, I expect better from him.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 11 | 506 ANSWERS Sutter blames officiating for loss to Leafs, insinuates that the NHL conspired with the Leafs last night Is the NHL biased towards the Leafs? | ||
| Seriously? | 94 | 18.6 % |
| That�s hilarious | 204 | 40.3 % |
| No. | 77 | 15.2 % |
| Absolutely not | 131 | 25.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
