Laffable

This is clearly going to come off as an angry Habs fan's rant, but I'll try to be as objective as I possibly can. Last night's game was atrocious. I find it hard to believe that a game officiated by four Ontarians in Toronto, broadcast on Hockey Night in Toronto, could possibly have been reffed objectively. I find it hard to believe that the refs honestly thought Steve Bégin was trying to hook Jeff O'Neill when he clearly was attempting to reach for the puck to shoot it on net. I find it hard to believe that the officials bought into their own claim that Andrei Markov had made incidental contact with Eddie Belfour on his goal that got waved off, when it was quite clear that a.) Markov had been pushed, and b.) that it was a Leafs defender, and not Markov, that made the hampering contact with Belfour. The least that Dean Warren and Kevin Pollock, from Toronto and Kincardine, Ontario, respectively, could have done is swallow their pride and check with the replay men upstairs. I guess, though, that when you're leaning towards one side already, you might as well just let it go. Most of all, I find it hard to believe that in this "new" NHL, where all infractions are supposed to be called, the Maple Leafs, notoriously one of the NHL's dirtiest and dive-happy teams, could only have been guilty of three - yes, I said it: THREE - penalties the entire 60 minutes, while the Canadiens, a team built on speed and finesse, were called for six. To be fair, the Craig Rivet penalty was partially acceptable, although when you consider the fact that the Leafs got away with several trips and hooks that should have been whistled down, or that the referees put their whistles away in the third period until the Rivet call at the very end of regulation time, all things considered it was an objectionable penalty. What I don't find hard to believe, however, is that it bodes well for the league, the CBC and all their fans every time the Maple Leafs win a hockey game, especially when it seems 'close' and 'hard-fought.' I really wish Claude Julien would lose his head every once in awhile, even if it would have cost him some money in fines. The refs deserve to be called out when they're not up to snuff, and boy, were they bad last night. What a shameful display by the NHL and its officials.