Lets go devils !!!

[Hepar]

Bottom line, its is very unfortunate to see a deciding game have referees play such a major role. They missed one call (the hit on Gionta), overreacted to fan reaction on the next one (the Bernier hit), and then interfered with a Devil later that led directly to another goal.

Couple of things.....

On the Bernier hit, the puck carrier was lined up at high speed and then reversed and turned FACING the boards at the last minute. The puck carrier has a responsibility for his own safety and should not do that. For those of you who know the game, you know there is no way possible a player can stop in time to avoid delivering the hit. Bad call in any game, never mind a Stanley Cup game 6. If anything, 2 minutes. NO WAY A 5 MINUTE MAJOR.

If Gionta had been in an area where there were glass boards, it would have looked as bad or worse than the Bernier hit.

On the ref interference on Volchenkov, it was blatant interference and the whistle should have blown by another referee instantly. Period. Just a faceoff. No goal scored.

These plays had a dramatic effect on how the rest of the game was played and the Devils, in short, were screwed out of an opportunity to extend the series.

But there wasn't glass around Gionta. A hit from behind against the glass is a 5 min major. No discussion. And the players know they've been cracking down on it even more this year. You can see he was going in for the check, not the puck. True, he turned, but it was a hit from behind into the glass none the less. And I was rooting for the Devil's to make it to a game 7.

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[JohnnyT]

Bernier is on the red line when Scuderi starts his turn TOWARDS the boards. Thats about 4 ft and he is skating FAST. No slow motion replay. Thats fractions of a second to alter his path - no human can do that. He's playing the man with the puck.

The rule is as follows.........

Rule 41 - Boarding - 41.1 Boarding – A boarding penalty shall be imposed on any player or goalkeeper who checks or pushes a defenseless opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to hit or impact the boards violently in the boards. The severity of the penalty, based upon the impact with the boards, shall be at the discretion of the Referee.

There is an enormous amount of judgment involved in the application of this rule by the Referees. The onus is on the player applying the check to ensure his opponent is not in a defenseless position and if so, he must avoid or minimize the contact. However, in determining whether such contact could have been avoided, the circumstances of the check, including whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneously with the check or whether the check was unavoidable can be considered. This balance must be considered by the Referees when applying this rule.

NO WAY YOU GIVE THIS A 5 MIN MAJOR IN GAME 6 OF THE STANLEY CUP FINALS.

Scuderi should have been more responsible and it should have been no penalty or 2 min at most.

Kudos to the Kings though as the Devils should have done better killing it off and keeping it to one goal max.

 

[JohnnyT]

Also, in Giontas case, he was clearly facing the boards long before the hit - no last second turn involved. Nor did he have the puck which Scuderi did.

The rule also says nothing about there being glass or not.

 

[Hepar]

Bernier is on the red line when Scuderi starts his turn TOWARDS the boards. Thats about 4 ft and he is skating FAST. No slow motion replay. Thats fractions of a second to alter his path - no human can do that. He's playing the man with the puck.

The rule is as follows.........

Rule 41 - Boarding - 41.1 Boarding – A boarding penalty shall be imposed on any player or goalkeeper who checks or pushes a defenseless opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to hit or impact the boards violently in the boards. The severity of the penalty, based upon the impact with the boards, shall be at the discretion of the Referee.

There is an enormous amount of judgment involved in the application of this rule by the Referees. The onus is on the player applying the check to ensure his opponent is not in a defenseless position and if so, he must avoid or minimize the contact. However, in determining whether such contact could have been avoided, the circumstances of the check, including whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneously with the check or whether the check was unavoidable can be considered. This balance must be considered by the Referees when applying this rule.

NO WAY YOU GIVE THIS A 5 MIN MAJOR IN GAME 6 OF THE STANLEY CUP FINALS.

Scuderi should have been more responsible and it should have been no penalty or 2 min at most.

Kudos to the Kings though as the Devils should have done better killing it off and keeping it to one goal max.

In hockey, it's not just the rules, but the results of the play that go into an officials call. If he had gotten up immediately and skated on, I bet it would have been a 2 min minor. The fact that he was obviously hurt made the decision a bit more easy for them. I don't think he meant to hit him the way he did and he looked like he was trying to check up a bit, but he was NOT playing the puck. His stick was up. Look, I would have preferred them to call a 2 min minor as the 5 min major was an absolute game killer, but the NHL is getting a lot of heat on cracking down on hits that involve the head (obviously as well as the NFL).

We can agree to disagree.

 

[JohnnyT]

And this is why you have some players embellishing injuries throwing themselves around the ice like ragdolls. It'll get like soccer before you know it.

The guy got hurt, cut, and was bleeding because HE was irresponsible. Scuderi's a very smart player but not here. Any number of players just like Bernier would have followed through with the same hit - and largely because they were already committed.

The shame of it is that it became the single major factor in a decisive game in the quest for the hardest championship to win in all of sports. The drive and determination it takes to win the Cup surpasses anything anywhere.

 

[Hepar]

He was turning because he was clearing the puck to his left. Your body is going to follow. I'm not sure how that is irresponsible.

 

[JohnnyT]

He was turning because he was clearing the puck to his left. Your body is going to follow. I'm not sure how that is irresponsible.

Yes, but he left himself vulnerable after Bernier initially sees him heading right to take the puck behind the net and Bernier goes to squeeze him off the puck.

Additionally, Bernier stopped taking strides just after the face off circle and he stayed firmly on his feet when delivering the hit. Would have been as clean a hit as you can deliver except for the fact that Scuderi turned late and it APPEARED to look vicious and reckless.

I bet even Scuderi would agree.

 

[Mark86]

I am a Devils hater but can see why the fans are so upset over the Gionta no-call. There probably should have been a 2 minute boarding minor for the hit, but again you are talking about a stanley cup playoff game. I thought the call on Bernier was appropriate. He had already played the puck and Bernier clearly hit him in the numbers from behind. In addition, the blood didn't help. The Devils lost all composure as the game wore on (major penalty). Goes to show you how difficult it is to climb out of a 3-0 hole.

The Kings have played very well for the entire series and definitely surprised a lot of people.

 

[Dusty Driftwood]

Your team lost, and, instead of being a man and admitting that you lost to a better team (which you did) you start making excuses and calling other posters idiots. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! LA deserved to win the cup this year, hands down. They outplayed everyone in almost every game and only lost 4 games. If any team went 16:4 for every 20 game stretch, they'd have at least 128 points at the end of the season.
To be fair, the idea that they "extended" the series for more money is ludicrous, but still...
And, since we're debating some of these calls, and we now have at least 3 month before next season, the Bernier hit was going to be a double minor (for the blood) or a 5 min major. Either way, LA would have gotten at least 2 on that PP. Don't blame the refs. If you want to blame someone, blame Bernier for not letting up, or the defense or Marty.
Also, your claim of "interference" on the ref is just as stupid. To use one of your phrases, "for those of you that know the game," the refs become part of the rink during the game. There are plenty of times that a player goes to clear the puck up the boards and it hits a linesman without any whistle. This is the same type of situation, it just happened to be in open ice and the play ended in a goal (which, by the way wasn't even at the end of that rush, it was after a couple passes) In my opinion NJ could have recovered from that play, but didn't because they were too busy chasing their tails, the way they were throughout most of the series.

 

[JohnnyT]

Your team lost, and, instead of being a man and admitting that you lost to a better team (which you did) you start making excuses and calling other posters idiots. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! LA deserved to win the cup this year, hands down. They outplayed everyone in almost every game and only lost 4 games. If any team went 16:4 for every 20 game stretch, they'd have at least 128 points at the end of the season.
To be fair, the idea that they "extended" the series for more money is ludicrous, but still...
And, since we're debating some of these calls, and we now have at least 3 month before next season, the Bernier hit was going to be a double minor (for the blood) or a 5 min major. Either way, LA would have gotten at least 2 on that PP. Don't blame the refs. If you want to blame someone, blame Bernier for not letting up, or the defense or Marty.
Also, your claim of "interference" on the ref is just as stupid. To use one of your phrases, "for those of you that know the game," the refs become part of the rink during the game. There are plenty of times that a player goes to clear the puck up the boards and it hits a linesman without any whistle. This is the same type of situation, it just happened to be in open ice and the play ended in a goal (which, by the way wasn't even at the end of that rush, it was after a couple passes) In my opinion NJ could have recovered from that play, but didn't because they were too busy chasing their tails, the way they were throughout most of the series.

Never did I make excuses, champ. Kudos to LA for having the younger, bigger team and for taking advantage of a huge opportunity. Devils should have done a much better job killing it off and maintaining their focus/composure (coaches included).

The fact that the extent of the injury has a role in the severity of the call is ridiculous and if a player bleeds or not as a deciding factor is incredibly stupid. A player could have a major concussion and yet not bleed resulting in a lesser penalty?? - flat out dumb. In this case, the player chose to change direction and face the boards at the last second knowing full well that another player was bearing down on him. The ref made a BAD JUDGEMENT CALL and reacted to fan reaction.

And what LA "deserved", who they beat to get there, and what their record was means NOTHING. It was only about the 2 games that remained - one team needed to win one, the other needed to win two. And my one and only point is that the referees made themselves a huge factor in what transpired in a championship environment.

Neither team is the best in hockey on paper but they earned the right to play for the trophy because they played the best team-hockey when it counted.