EDMONTON OILERS 4 VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS 1 (Series 2-2)

No excuses, but the officiating?!?!?!?!
Bad calls, no calls, wrong calls, missed calls, lopsided calls.

Game wasn’t evenly called and Edmonton is going full soccer dives now as well to get penalties.

How does Kane not get a major for boarding petro at the end of the game? Don’t blame perto for taking justice in his own hands with that slash at the end of the game. At least he hit someone who matters.

The knights power play is definitely costing them. If you get 4 power plays in the playoffs you need to be getting at least 1 goal. It’s f-ing abysmal!

Now to the big topic, can we all just agree Theodore can’t handle pressure in the playoffs? He is a turn over machine in the playoffs. Tonight his meltdown cost us the game.

We need to get some assets for him next year.

Want to go to the game Friday to not allow the Edmonton fans to take over again

laughable Sinbin recap with zero mention of Theodore’s pathetic blunders basically Handing the game to Edm in the early minutes of the first period. any MOmentum that Edm got in game 4 was produced and manufactured by #27, the Vgk gutless wonder on D.

this is type of reffing that caused me to stop watching the NHL for years, it’s pathetic.

NHL = WWE

on ice.

In the early morning rain with a dollar in my hand
With an aching in my heart and my pockets full of sand
I’m a long way from home, Lord, I miss my loved ones so
In the early morning rain with no place to go
Out on runway number nine a big 707 set to go
And, I’m stuck here in the grass where the pavement never grows
Now, the liquor tasted good and the women all were fast
Well, there she goes, my friend, she’ll be rolling down at last
Hear the mighty engines roar, see the silver wing on high
She’s away and westward bound, far above the clouds she’ll fly
There the morning rain don’t fall and the sun always shines
She’ll be flying over my home in about three hours time
This old airport’s got me down, it’s no earthly good to me
And I’m stuck here on the ground as cold and drunk as I can be
You can’t jump a jet plane like you can a freight train
So, I’d best be on my way in the early morning rain
You can’t jump a jet plane like you can a freight train
So, I’d best be on my way in the early morning rain

warning, this is going to be a long rant:

100% the golden knights fault. if they scored on 25% of their power plays, 90% of the oilers bullshit would stop. that being said, lets talk about the refs:

the refs have not, at any point, had control of this series. there has been no consistency between the 4 games and not even period to period. the players are left to guess as to what a penalty is, even in the lockeroom in the middle of a game.

lets start with pietrangleo. Piet slashes drai on the inside of the arm after the whistle and he drops to the ice like his legs are broken. the announcers react saying it was a slash to the wrists… but they cant tell what it was since they are calling the game from the same feed we are watching and are not actually at the game (and the feed at rogers place sucks). announcers over-react. the officials see drai on the ice not moving and hear the entire crowd lighting torches and trying to find their pitchforks because somsone took a run at their golden boy… so the officials over-react too.

lets compare that to game 3: evander kane crosschecks pietrangelo directly to the face after charging him, after the whistle. Piet doesnt brake his legs and lay still on the ice… no outrage and no player safety meeting. to me, these are the same thing; frustration from the officiating boiling over and resulting in dirty plays after the whistle. if pietrangelo’s slash could have broken draisitle wrist if the facts were a little different, so could evander have broken something in piets face/neck. neither one of these would have happened if the officials were in control of the game.

in game 1 mark stone scores a goal with an edmonton player trailing him. you can see in the replay, that the oiler sees the puck go in the net, stone raises his arms in celebration and then the oiler shoves marks lower back. no call. any time mark is close to the net, he gets a shove in the lower back. game 4, he gets a good look in the crease and he is violently shoved into the post. this is a perfect opportunity for the officials to say “this is where we draw the line. that is acceptable, but this is not”. no calls have been made this series for crosschecking stone from behind. stone however got a penalty for turning around and giving the oiler a slash. essentially the refs have said “it’s open season on mark stone… and stone is not allowed to defend himself”.

in game 4, the refs continued to make the softest calls… but at the same time refusing to call the big calls. however, if you retaliated in the smallest way, instant penalty. how does that make sense? what the refs are saying is “we do not appreciate the players taking matters into their own hands and retaliating on eachother… that is the officials job. its our job to decide whats a penalty is and what is not. meanwhile, we dont call anything that matters and we are calling everything that doesnt.” its bullshit. if they are unwilling or incapable of make the calls that matter and control the game, they shouldnt punish the players for at the very least sticking up for themselves.

this obviously favors edmonton… because if theres no clear line as to what the knights can get away with, they are forced to do nothing in fear that they will give up a power play. but this also favors the team in the lead. the team in the lead can afford to give up a powerplay on a random penalty whereas the team trailing cannot afford anything. i think this is why we are seeing these brutal lopsided matches and also why frustration is boiling over.

the oilers took liberties through that entire game and not one time did the officals say “okay, you took that too far, this is where we draw the line”… instead, they would make soft calls like the interference off the faceoff instead of the blatant open-ice interference that went on the whole game. they miss the slash that broke stones stick off the faceoff, or the roughing on theodore as hes standing 5 feet from the play waiting for it to pop out.. but they definitely caught theos retaliation shalshing.

rant over: where is the line? is it a line? because right now it seems more like a donut.

I let this loss sit for almost 24 hours before commenting. I agree with Ken in that Petro deserved to be suspended for that blatant slash. Yes, the Kane stick to Stone’s face with no time left on the clock was nearly as bad, but not as bad. Then there was the vicious cross check to Stone in the upper back that resulted in an Oilers goal on the back end with Mark flattened out on the ice. There was a probable missed boarding call on Petro in this game and multiple cross checks on Theodore when he took that spearing call.

So enough talk about the referees.

Ken’s analysis was great, but he missed the fact that the large majority of VGK shots in periods 1, 2 and the beginning of period 3 were all from beyond the circles or from the side boards.

The VGK didn’t really start getting to the crease until too late in the 3rd period with Roy finally hitting net. Way too late.

Do we still have to continue talking about the putrid power play? Yes, we do. The strategy is way too predictable. Pass from the Blue line to the left boards, back to the Blue line, pass to the right boards, back to the Blue and then a long distance shot from somewhere beyond the circle or at low angles from outside the circle.

ABSOLUTELY ZERO SKATING WITH THE PUCK TO TRY AND OPEN UP SHOOTING LANES!

Whose fault is this? I would go all the way back to DeBoer if I could with his lack of innovation, but that wouldn’t be fair. Cassidy takes the ultimate blame, but so do his Special Teams coaches. This team has the talent to be better on the power play. For whatever the reason, they just suck.

And that my fellow Sin Binners is exactly why I think that the VGK will lose this series. Opposing teams, especially the Oilers, have ZERO respect for our power play. It’s not a threat at all. That means that the Oilers can commit as many illegal cross checks, holding the stick, interference or roughing penalties as they want to without any fear of consequence.

IF the VGK loses game 5, this series is over. If the VGK can somehow win game 5 then anything can still happen. But, keep in mind that this team is not built to play from behind. It simply isn’t a team that can make up a 3 goal deficit or even a 2 goal deficit most of the time. This team has a ton of 1 goal victories.

Ken’s right. The first 10 minutes of period 1 in game 5 might just very well define whether or not the Golden Knights can possibly win this series or not.

I am very happy with how far this team has come. Cassidy has done a great job with a team that doesn’t have a forward in the top 15 of the NHL. If we fall in the 2nd round there’s hope for next season. If we somehow make it to the Conference Championship round then anything is still possible.

Overall, I believe that the VGK is the better team, but it’s close. We have to have more production out of both Smith and Theodore.

At this point, the idea of putting Whitecloud up on the 1st PP unit should be considered. Maybe you bring in a Paul Cotter for Brett Howden? I do NOT think we have a goaltender issue.

You can bet that the Oilers will be looking to take the head of Pietrangelo in game 5 in retaliation for the slash on #29. The problem is that we don’t have any real enforcers on this team. The VGK has to be disciplined and not take stupid selfish retaliation penalties.

Prediction for game 5? It all depends on coaching and the ability for the VGK to be their best in this game, especially in period 1.