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I’m so sick of watching game management hockey. LA has held the lead for 8 minutes total through three games in a 2-1 series. LA has received 7 more PPs than the Oil, including two in OT that decided the game (and another with 2 mins left in the 3rd while LA was trailing). The endless embellishment by LA is shameful as well.

Even the Sportsnet panel (and Louie and Singer) have been commenting on the poor reffing and those guy all try their absolute hardest to not make any mention of it. Yes, the Oil need to be more disciplined, but the double standard is confounding even the pro analysts. LA are no sweethearts but they’re only called on the most blatant calls, but never get called on the marginal stuff like the Oil do. Case in point: Kostin gets a penalty for interference while holding a guy to the ice. Danault does the same to McDavid minutes later, no call.
 
I mean we all anticipated that reffing would be a factor against a California team. That said you need to control yourself and play with some maturity. Don’t even give the refs an excuse to make a call. Stop with the slashes, stop with the retaliatory measures, let the kings be dirty divers and focus on your game. This should have been learned in game one.
 
The refs were terrible, zero consistency and hard to play playoff hockey when a tap on the leg is 2mins.

That said, the Oilers are beating themselves with missed opportunities and L.A. is doing a great job at keeping them outside.
 
IanO said:
The refs were terrible, zero consistency and hard to play playoff hockey when a tap on the leg is 2mins.

That said, the Oilers are beating themselves with missed opportunities and L.A. is doing a great job at keeping them outside.
Click to expand...
emphasis added because they weren't even playing hockey when that 2 minutes was assessed.

it was assessed during a stoppage in play after the oilers had scored a goal to take the lead. they should have kept their statement to celebrating the goal, not slashing an opponent - even with just a tap - that would have been uncalled for by the team scored upon, never mind by the team who scored.

even draisaitl acknowledged that it was an inappropriate lack of discipline. while you could argue that it shouldn't have been called because it was a just a tap, it's a tap that shouldn't have taken place in the first place.

i also happen to think that the undisciplined penalties made it easier for the refs to call those marginal ot penalties on a team that's displayed a game long pattern up to that point.
 
I have a really bad feeling about this series. The image that keeps coming into my mind is the 1989-90 Calgary Flames.

The 89-90 Flames had an outstanding regular season (second overall) and an excellent coach and general manager (Terry Crisp, Cliff Fletcher). They cruised into the playoffs against who else...the Los Angeles Kings in the first round. The Flames were praised to the skies by hockey analysts and predicted to go very deep in the playoffs, if not to repeat as Cup champions.

Instead the Flames let L.A. take game one in Calgary's rink. The Flames won game two. Then L.A. won game three in...overtime. See where I'm going with this?

The Kings won the series in six games, a series in which the Flames were judged the superior team by virtually all observers. Like this year's Oilers, the Flames went into the playoffs with an intimidating record (if I recall correctly they had the best home record in the NHL that year)--this year's Oilers had a nine game win streak entering the playoffs, the second-most in NHL history, and of course the Oilers set an NHL record for powerplay effectiveness in 2022-23.

I'm not interested in hearing how the refs are cheating the Oilers. The Oilers are beating themselves. They can't score consistently (what happened to all that offense from the regular season?) and they can't stop acting stupid (see: Draisatl penalty that led to tying goal). If the Oilers can't put in a consistent effort against a team like the Kings, and can't get their heads in the game, then even if they scrape past L.A. they'll be roadkill for the Golden Knights or Avalanche in the second round.

Does anyone remember how the L.A.-Calgary series ended? The Flames lost in overtime of game six...after a bad call by referee Denis Morel.

Who was it who said that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce?
 
I guess the Flames had a golf tournament with sponsorship from the Old Scotch Bar.

"One punch goes a long way!" - Al MacInnis
 
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