March 6 2009 Giants 0 Hitmen (Zebras) 4
What can I say? I so angry in this game that at times I couldn't see straight. It wasn't because of the team either. It was because someone's agenda was being fullfilled and because the balance in the game had been deliberately thrown out of whack by some criminally poor choices and decisions.
In the third I couldn't rouse myself to even be angry anymore as I felt like we were being beat not by the opposing team, but by simple pettiness which succeeded in killing what should have been the most thrilling game of the year and which started out that way. Which makes it all the more sad. Maybe I should be thankful to get that ten minutes of playoff level hockey.
Half-way through the third I had to leave my seat and walk around the concourse. I have never ever left my seat in the many years I have been sitting there during play, except maybe once or twice for a desperate bathroom break. I was so upset at how a great game was being stolen from me and needed to take a break, before I did. That doesn't say I didn't watch the TV screens as I did my circuit. I guess I had high hopes for what this game could have been and couldn't believe that a couple of snot-nosed useless tits wearing orange stripes could steal a game from 14,000 fans so completely.
Derek Zalaski has once again succeeded in making the game about him and the uber-useless Devin Klein, both of whom don't deserve to ref in the Dub. They made Kirk look reasonable tonight and that's a tough thing to do.
Calgary is a great team, but so are we and I really wish that we had been given a chance to prove that. Tonight I don't believe we were and that crushes me. Not the loss. Although I don't like that either. but the fact that a game which had so much potential was ripped untimely from the arena by ego-driven agendas and possibly a cash payment after the game.
here's how I saw it and felt it:
Quote:
Zebras Burn Giants
Vancouver 0 Zebras 4
Don Robinson
The game started out with a bang. Jonny Blum was back in the line-up after sitting out a few weeks with a shoulder injury. The Giants came out skating and hitting. Smallish guys like Craig Cunningham and James Henry were laying crushing body checks. Both teams had jump and it looked to be the game everybody was hoping to see. Then the wheels came off. It wasn’t because of undisciplined play and clutching from behind. It wasn’t from one team scrambling to keep up. It was routine physical play with a whole bunch of what I would call diving, but wasn’t called as such. The Hitmen scored four PP goals in the game and were given 7 questionable man-advantage chances to bulge the twine. The Giants who were playing the same game as the Hitmen had two PP opportunities. One a full two-minute PP the other a token call as the zebras had to call Brendan Gallagher being hauled down on a short-handed break-away a penalty. Not a penalty shot. A penalty.
The game of the year started out with great speed and hurting checks by the Giants and hungry hockey from both sides of the puck and then the officials got involved and absolutely crushed any and all momentum in the game gifting (literally) PP after PP in the most lop-sided miscarriage of reffing I have ever had the misfortune to witness. Sure I get on the refs a lot, but this display was so poor that I was seriously believing that the officials in the game had been paid off. It was that blatant. The first ten minutes was some great playoff level hockey from both teams and had me salivating at the next 50 minutes, but it was not to be. The difference began when the zebras called an extremely soft penalty on a minor bump which had the Calgary player laying themselves out on the ice like they had been shot out of cannon. Don’t believe me? Watch the Shaw feed. Both teams played the same kind of hockey, it wasn’t cheap, it wasn’t chippy. It was by my reckoning the worst example of officiating I believe I have ever seen. Calls were made when a player fell to the ice, which the Hitmen did with great regularity and very little reason. Scrums had sticks in skates, the Giants didn’t seem to fall down, the Hitmen did and that for me was the difference in the game.
The Giants must have used up all their puck luck in the game versus the Americans. Coming off of a convincing win versus the Ams and with the Hitmen dropping a poor one to the Blazers, they were coming in with an even stronger yen to win and a cache of puck karma on their side. The G-Men could easily have come out soft, but they didn’t. They came out battling and the Hitmen were equal to the task holding on long enough to be given an edge. Brett Sonne had three points scoring on the PP and assisting twice more. Golicic, Stone and Bortis rounded out the Hitmen scoring. The Hitmen were great at collapsing to their net, but weren’t above the occasional pick-play, hold or check from behind and this game might have been okay had those things been called, but they weren’t. The Giants might still have lost this game, but they would have had a fighting chance. Tonight they didn’t. The Hitmen blocked a ton of shots and were quick to the loose pucks, but the Giants did not lay down in the game or feel like they were scrambling other than killing off their fourth PP against in a row, for nothing.
What should have been the best game of the season and started out like that, enticingly so in fact, turned into a serious joke in which several officials should be investigated. It wasn’t even just the refs, the linesmen were in on the plan from the get-go allowing players to be tied up at the face-off circle and still dropping the puck. Basically not doing their job. Not even close. It was frankly criminal. Call it sour grapes if you want. Call me a whiny homer, but from where I was sitting the game was literally ruined by shoddy officials. Make no mistake the Hitmen are a great team and I give them props for clearing the front of their net and keeping the Giants to the outside, but the game was not balanced and was high-jacked by someone’s agenda. In the end the Giants failed to keep the puck out of their net though and they allowed Sexsmith to be screened regularly and allowed the Hitmen to get to the net. But I still say they were never given a chance to be in the game due to the crushing effect of bogus calls and misreads. Derek Zalaski and Devin Klein should have the orange stripes ripped from their arms as they don’t deserve to wear them.
The Giants were 0 for 2 on the PP, while the Hitmen went 4 for 7, working their PP well, moving the puck and cycling effectively. They out shot the Giants 29-28 in the game. The Giants have a tough task tomorrow in Kelowna when they take on the Rockets at Prospera Place. The Rockets who earlier lost five straight to the G-Men, have pulled out the last two. Curiously Jon Blum was hurt in the game in Kelowna in which the Giants lost in OT and was out of the line-up when the Rockets crushed the Vancouver squad 6-2 in their own barn. The Giants still have a chance to get top spot in the Dub, but they will need to win all five of their remaining games to guarantee top spot. The Hitmen have two games remaining and a possible 4 points. The Giants are currently four points behind with three games in hand and will tie if they win four of their next five games and gain top spot outright if they sweep the set. Losing tonight really hurt their chances to guarantee top spot, but its still possible. The puck drops in Kelowna at 7pm PST.
Three Stars
1) Brett Sonne
2) Martin Jones
3) Michael Stone
Tough Loss - Typical Zalaski
First, I couldn't believe the Giants lost.
Second, I couldn't believe the Giants got shut out.
Third, I couldn't believe the Hitman got all their goals on the power play.
Finally, I read further down the game sheet and saw that Zalaski was one of the refs. Then everything made sense. :dead:
Looks like Zalaski was wearing Hitmen Underoos last night, which is entirely consistent with how he's reffed T-Birds/Tips games in Everett. :rolleyes:
