Shameful conduct

Sorry that this is a bit of a late post, but I wanted to take a moment to comment on the atrocious conduct by the referees in Sunday's Pittsburgh-Canadiens rematch. After the Thursday game, Guy Carbonneau and his players complained about the one-sided call which saw Sheldon Souray get a 2-minute instigator penalty, a 5-minute fighting major, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct for jumping Colby Armstrong after his questionable hit on captain Saku Koivu. Despite dropping his gloves and throwing punches, Armstrong received no penalties, and Souray's penalties resulted in a 7-minute Penguins power play, during which they scored two goals.

In the Sunday game, the referees awarded the Penguins six power plays in the first two periods, many of which were questionable calls against the Habs. The Penguins, meanwhile, were not assessed any penalties, and it was clear from the way the game was being called that this was in direct retaliation for the way the Canadiens organization reacted to the reffing last Thursday. Even the CBC commentators, not usually known for their allegiance to the Habs, were hinting that the six power plays were not a coincidence and were not all fair calls. This was a less subtle example of the refs not being on the Canadiens' side, and most of those who scoff at the notion of a conspiracy against the Habs were in agreement that the one-sided bombardment of penalties was deliberate.

Conduct such as this by the NHL's referees is absolutely unacceptable. It is a disgrace that clubs should not be allowed to comment when they feel they were treated unfairly in a game, and that the NHL should allow its officials to retaliate in such an unscrupulous manner. Pete Rose was banned from baseball because gambling is seen as motivation to fix the outcome of a game, and I believe that retaliation by referees such as that which took place on Sunday is no different. It is immature, unprofessional, and borderline illegal. The NHL would be smart to denounce its officials' actions and to establish a proper system for making complaints about calls, but, unfortunately, 'intelligence' is not an adjective that has been associated with the league's head offices very much in recent years.