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A Stunning lack of PP Opportunities


Quebecois

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If it feels like we never get a chance to go on the PP, it's because we don't.

We haven't had more than 3 opportunities since Halloween when we had 4. We also haven't had more PP opportunities than the opponent since October 24th against the Rangers (Cammalleri's hattrick game!). Heading into tonight's action we ranked 29th in the league with just 75 opportunities. Only ahead of the Sens who have played 3 less games.

What is the problem here? Are the refs screwing us? Is it simply a fluke that will balance out? Are we lacking puck control and therefore lacking in opportunities to draw penalties?

Discuss.

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You have to be pressing and be a threat offensive to draw penalties. If the team isn't driving to the net and you have AHL level players that really aren't much of a threat, why would the opposition need to take a penalty??? Especially now that we are icing the Montreal Bulldogs.

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I have noticed this, and time to put on my tinfoil hat, the refs are against us. Shit like missed high sticks in the Red Wings game, trips, the obstruction against our forwards is insane, yet we never get shit called. Look at Pac last night...1-2-3-4 seconds after the puck was gone, thats interference. How about the non-call on Nash's boarding against Moen, then the 'phantom' hit Nash ducked away from.

I think it's time refs are held accountable to the media, to the players, to the teams. They should have to be given access by the media to comment on why they did what.

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The Gionta comment is very true, in the NHL referees call penaltys for interference

only if a star/established player is in control of the puck.

Wen did you see a forward of the opposing team have a penalty for tripping our defense

like they called against Sergei ?? Bergeron is tripped or falls by himself on the ice 4-5 times

a game.

The slash on the foreharm of Andrei ?? Half the face of Pyattt has been cut by Umberger stick.

Max Pac had the good reaction or he would have been hit directly to the head last night.

No penalty. New NHL...bull...

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What is the problem here? Are the refs screwing us? Is it simply a fluke that will balance out? Are we lacking puck control and therefore lacking in opportunities to draw penalties?

Good question. I think the lack of puck control and the fact that most of our good players arent, playing has hurt us in this department. If your guys don't have the talent to hold on to the puck and make opposing teams work to get the puck away from you, you won't get many penalty calls in your favor!

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The Gionta comment is very true, in the NHL referees call penaltys for interference

only if a star/established player is in control of the puck.

Wen did you see a forward of the opposing team have a penalty for tripping our defense

like they called against Sergei ?? Bergeron is tripped or falls by himself on the ice 4-5 times

a game.

The slash on the foreharm of Andrei ?? Half the face of Pyattt has been cut by Umberger stick.

Max Pac had the good reaction or he would have been hit directly to the head last night.

No penalty. New NHL...bull...

:clap: on your thoughts

80's hockey all over again...

refs don't call nothing on kids

and

'star' players don't get suspended.

it's all farce :puke:

I will stand in the line with Bar, refs should be held up against the Habs media...

imagine if that took some of the attention off the team just for a sec... ahhh...

ohh...

I think I best go back to my present utopic world and get my seat ready cuz 25 is comming baby!!!!!

Edited by ehjay
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Yeah, we're 29th in total PP's and we've played more games than any team in the league. It's pretty brutal.

To be honest, I haven't noticed a heck of a lot of missed calls against us. We're just simply not putting our opposition in a spot to take a penalty. We aren't forcing turnovers, we aren't taking risks and are trying to be very methodical with our offence. I think it's fair to criticize the system for this lack of results.

That being said, Martin should whine in the media about the officiating. That strategy generally works, believe it or not.

Or maybe Gainey weeded out all the divers from last year and we aren't getting the calls as a result. :wacko:

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It's simple as that.

With Gomez, Markov and Gionta, we would be entering the offensive zone with the puck, and with some speed. These players are good and speedy enough to shake the defensemen and draw penalties from them.

Now, we're stuck with grinders all over the lineup, players that never had NHL experience, who always dump and chase.

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Yeah, we're 29th in total PP's and we've played more games than any team in the league. It's pretty brutal.

To be honest, I haven't noticed a heck of a lot of missed calls against us. We're just simply not putting our opposition in a spot to take a penalty. We aren't forcing turnovers, we aren't taking risks and are trying to be very methodical with our offence. I think it's fair to criticize the system for this lack of results.

That being said, Martin should whine in the media about the officiating. That strategy generally works, believe it or not.

Or maybe Gainey weeded out all the divers from last year and we aren't getting the calls as a result. :wacko:

I always thought the opposite, but hey, you could be onto something. I thought Carbo complained WAY too much, and as a result, the refs would always be looking to stick it to him. I'd cover my daughter's eyes when the camera would be on Guy, she was learning to read lips.

Edited by Habsy
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I always thought the opposite, but hey, you could be onto something. I thought Carbo complained WAY too much, and as a result, the refs would always be looking to stick it to him. I'd cover my daughter's eyes when the camera would be on Guy, she was learning to read lips.

The numbers seem to back it up (of course there are other factors.) In 2007-2008 we were 5th in PPO. In 2008-2009 we were 1st.

I haven't noticed a TON of missed calls, but there have been some, and there have been plenty of occasions where something COULD be called but wasn't.

The idea of a lack of skill meaning a lack of PPO is an interesting one. Just glancing at the teams who lead the NHL in PPOs, there seems to be little or no correlation between good teams and drawing penalties.

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Opposing player's stick stuck IN Cammalleri's helmet. No call. I mean, stuck in his helmet. He skated around with the stick IN his helmet. No call. 15 feet from a ref watching the play.

Hit on Moen by Nash which would have been considered by the league had it been made by Laraque it was so blatant. No call. Then Moen, admittedly, goes after Nash and completely whiffs. Doesn't make a lick of contact. 2 minutes. 8 feet in front of the ref watching the play.

I'm not one to complain about the reffing, and I will state categorically that we're not losing because of reffing issues, but marginal calls made on the Habs don't look like they're being made against the opposition.

I agree that the refs need to be held more accountable. I think there should be an avenue a GM can take where he can approach the NHL with tapes like this and demand explanations - with resulting penalties being applied to refs - forfeiture of salary for a week or something like that.

I also think the Habs 100th has something to do with it. Refs don't want to look like they're being favouritist (is that a word?) to the Habs in the Centennial, and have therefore gone out of their way to make sure they don't look like they're giving Montreal any extra benefits.

Are we not drawing enough because of our play? Absolutely. Are the refs missing some brutal calls against us? Ask Andrei and his slashed wrist. Blatant. Ref 25 feet away, staring at the play.

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For the record, we are 27th in penalties against too. So basically we are the 4th highest penalized team, but the 2nd least team to be given a PP.

I have watched every game and I do see a bias. There are many obvious calls missed, but more importantly, I see very minor calls made against the habs with none going the other way. In any given game, a ref might be calling everything, or nothing, but it should be consistent for both teams. Far too often this year I have seen it be totally one sided against us.

We definitely have the worse split. Carolina gets lost called on them, but they get lots for as well. We seem to be screwed both ways.

That said, there is no doubt that our lack of speed and puck control also contributes to our lack of PP time.

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For the record, we are 27th in penalties against too. So basically we are the 4th highest penalized team, but the 2nd least team to be given a PP.

I have watched every game and I do see a bias. There are many obvious calls missed, but more importantly, I see very minor calls made against the habs with none going the other way. In any given game, a ref might be calling everything, or nothing, but it should be consistent for both teams. Far too often this year I have seen it be totally one sided against us.

We definitely have the worse split. Carolina gets lost called on them, but they get lots for as well. We seem to be screwed both ways.

That said, there is no doubt that our lack of speed and puck control also contributes to our lack of PP time.

Lack of speed? Which team are we talking about here...

That's one of the puzzling things about this for me, we have tons of team speed, at least up front.

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Lack of speed? Which team are we talking about here...

That's one of the puzzling things about this for me, we have tons of team speed, at least up front.

Well, not right now we don't. :)

I do think that Gomez and Gionta get ripped. They get hooked and hauled down all the time and I think the refs figure they are small. You do that to Crosby and you are in the box.

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I've noticed this too. It's hard to judge if we are getting unfairly treated - I am never sure how much is my own pro Habs bias.

My theory is that this is due to 2 factors:

1) the tendency to let "stars" get away with more and be very strict with rookies and other young players

2) the Bell Centre fans. Most teams get more PP's when they are the home team. We don't. I think this might be because every time a habs gets knocked down the fans immediately yell for a penalty. This might be making the refs uncomfortable about calling a penalty since they don't want to be seen as homers.

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I am of the belief that there are two types of people in the hockey world: Those who love the Habs, and those who hate the Habs. There is no in between. That being said, I do think that there are some refs who are biased against the Habs, whether they know it or not. How else can we be among the highest penalized and among the lowest with the powerplay? Its not like we are a team full of cheap shot artists and thugs.

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I have two theories for why the PP opportunities are down this year:

1) Everyone in the league knows MTL lives and dies by their PP goals ... so they make damn sure to try and limit their chances. Combine that with no. 2 ...

2) This is a team full of small hockey players, and small hockey players get knocked around alot. Everytime I watch a home game the crowd at the Bell Centre booes maniacly every single time a habs falls down, it's like crying wolf to use an analogy in a very loose way. The ref's know there will be players falling/knocked down more and so they miss some of the times when guys are going down as a result of an infraction.

Just my two cents worth, feel free to agree/disagree/discuss further.

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That is a terrible thing if it's true. A penalty is a penalty no matter if you hook a 5 foot 10 forward or a 7 foot giant. The level of consistancy has not been there in the referring, and it's starting to become super obvious.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just posted this at HIO because they were asking for responses on the reffing issue:

I'm still struggling with the non-call when Cammalleri was high-sticked a month or so ago. One would think it should have been a no-brainer call... seeing as how the offender's stick was lodged in Cammalleri's helmet under his chin. Worse yet, it happened right in front of the ref. I'm not one to blame the refs because, by and large, they do a reasonable job in an difficult environment. However, this season has been an aberration and it's getting more and more frustrating. Forget last night's quick whistle, that's already happened in favour of the Habs this season. What about the regular penalties that are consistently missed: Plekanec has been high-sticked at least 4 times that I remember, all without a call. There have been countless hooks and holds and obstruction calls which have been missed when they would have been in Montreal's favour, but called even though far less blatant on the other side of the ice.

While I would hesitate to call out favouritism within the reffing ranks, I have to wonder if there's been a league directive which has told the crews to ensure Montreal doesn't get any marginal calls because the league fears a backlash in the Centennial season(s). No one wants Montreal to get an edge and be "offered" wins because of officiating during these celebratory times, but I think things have gone too far the other way - officials are so concerned about looking like they're favouring Montreal, that instead they're ignoring blatant calls to keep their asses covered.

It's just a hypothesis, of course, but at least in my mind it allows me to think that there's some reason behind some of the most blatant missed calls I've seen in hockey in years.

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I also noticed the same trend in the last month. I don't have any problem with the penalties we got, it's just that there are too many penalties not called against the other team. It bothers me quite a bit, because it's so obvious IMO, and I am surprised that nobody has reported on it in the newspapers or elsewhere.

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I also noticed the same trend in the last month. I don't have any problem with the penalties we got, it's just that there are too many penalties not called against the other team. It bothers me quite a bit, because it's so obvious IMO, and I am surprised that nobody has reported on it in the newspapers or elsewhere.

I see a lot of posts on HIO, but I notice mine wasn't published. Apparently it didn't get through screening there. No conspiracy theories allowed? Too close to home?

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The stats do seem to indicate that the refs have been biased against the team this year, but they're misleading. As others have stated, Montreal's style of play is not one that is apt to draw penalties. They spend two thirds of most games in their own zone and they offensive game is so helter-skelter that it doesn't draw a lot of calls.

Every team in the league feels like the refs have it out for their team. If you listened to the Pittsburgh announcers last night, they had viewers believing the Canadiens were getting away with things left and right. I find that home team bias is most evident when discussing officiating. Most fans will be outraged when the other team gets away with something, but they won't say a word if their own team gets away with the same thing. Here we are complaining about the officiating against us, while the rest of the league thinks we get special treatment because we're the historic Canadiens. It goes both ways.

P.S. I think they banned me from posting on HI/O after I tried to comment on one of their posts with a link to HW. I guess they didn't like me saying how great HW is!

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