By Ken Hawkins (a.k.a. khawk)
At one point, there was quite a good hockey game going on Saturday night between the Senators and Hurricanes. CAR came out to an early 1-0 lead on home ice, but OTT was trying to fight back in the 2nd period against a tough playoff-quality opponent. Then the Senators finally broke through and tied the game, with Tim Stutzle scoring a goal on a nice crossing pass by David Perron. Or so it should have been, save for the referees deciding that a defending forward being two strides behind the play and reaching in to try to interfere with a scoring play with one hand on their stick was something the game needed more than actual goal scoring. The referees then re-imagined the definition of slashing to include a forward being knocked off balance so their stick hit the goaltender’s glove less than a second after covering the puck. The ensuing PP would effectively decide the game, as it directly led to 2PPG that put the game out of reach.
CAR 4 - OTT 0 (NHL Game Highlights)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B2IdScOUVk/
Providing further evidence of how embarrassing the call was on Stutzle’s goal, the NHL-sourced highlights of the game decided it apparently wasn’t even worth including in the final edit. In fact, they just magically jump from the 16:26 mark of the 2nd period to the 0:49 mark, and spend just 1:09/10:14 of video time on any part of the 2nd period… despite the fact that it was clearly the period that decided the outcome of the game. Conversely, the TSN highlights found it more appropriate to spend the first 0:33 of their 2:01 game highlight summary with both the Stutzle/Pinto penalties being described in detail, as well as the last 0:30 of the summary providing Travis Green’s post-game comments about the officiating. It's almost as if TSN understood why the game was won, and the NHL didn't want to call attention to bad officiating.
TSN Highlights
https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/video/nhl-senators-0-hurricanes-4%7E3030994/
This is just bush league stuff from the NHL. If a goal is going to be taken away by the referees, there shouldn't be any grey area in their rule interpretation, and they probably shouldn't be ruling in favour of the player who clearly lost their positioning and is using their stick for the sole purpose of obstruction. That said, CAR is obviously a very good team, and definitely earned the 1-0 lead they held leading up to that 2nd period nonsense. As such, it would be a stretch to suggest that OTT would have won this game if not for the questionable calls, but it definitely would have been a different game at 1-1, and even more so if that Pinto call doesn’t lead to 2PP goals against. You always want to see the game decided by the players, as opposed to the only people on the ice that absolutely nobody paid to watch. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen on Saturday night in Raleigh, NC.
The Good - Overall, Anton Forsberg played well enough to keep the game close, and despite an 0.889 sv% made several big stops including more than one standout save vs. Martin Necas. Unfortunately, that first GA is an example of him being far too easy to read when anticipating the play, which is something he needs to keep working on. Brady Tkachuk had another strong game, and led the team with 7 shots and 7 hits. David Perron was a welcome sight, and should have had his first point of the season on the Tim Stutzle goal. Otherwise, it was a decent all-round team effort, but lacking in standout performances.
The Bad - The score sheet contains pretty clear evidence that CAR was able to effectively dictate the flow of this game, and did a better job of playing to their strengths. When OTT played BOS recently on the road, there were 77 hits in the game… vs. CAR there were just 37 hits. When OTT played TOR recently on the road, they outshot them 17-9 in the first period and had a 1-0 lead… vs. CAR they were outshot 14-6 and were down 1-0. And as much as OTT outshot CAR later in the 3rd period, it carries very little meaning if you’re down 3-0 and the game is effectively out of reach. It's also a bad sign to be holding a 16-6 blocked shot advantage while also being shut-out.
The Ugly - Those calls on Stutzle/Pinto can’t be topped on this night. CAR probably wins this game regardless, but yikes.
The loss drops the Senators record to 8-8-1 on the year, which is just marginally ahead of their 8-9-0 record from last year. The silver lining on the night was that other key divisional rivals like BOS, DET, and BUF also lost their games, so the Senators remain effectively tied for 4th in the Atlantic Division. However, they once again find themselves at the .500 mark, with tough games ahead vs. EDM, VGK, VAN, and CGY. On the positive side, they will all be home games and OTT is 5-2-1 at home this year including wins vs. FLA, TBL, and LAK. That said, all four of those western teams not only come in with better records on the year than OTT, but all four also have .500 or better records on the road. So they’ll need to regroup quickly, and be 100% ready for the Oilers on Tuesday night.
What did you think about the Senators’ loss to the Hurricanes? Please leave your comments below, and as always thanks for reading!
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