March 6 2009 Giants 0 Hitmen (Zebras) 4

[dondo]

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:

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

[hitmanfan]

Postma was with Gallaher the whole time and that was why it was not called a penalty shot, there was no clear break away. And diving?I'lll just take our 2 points and leave it at that.

[Giants_24]

After the Rockets game a few weeks back, when the Giants lost 6-2, I didn't think we'd run into another reffing job as bad as that game. But, of course, the WHL seemed to find two different goons to put on the ice tonight that called an even worse game.

Call after call tonight, I started to lose interest. By time the 3rd rolled around, I could really care less. I knew we weren't going to win it because we were never intended to win that game. I kept thinking the whole game about one of the comments a while ago (I believe it was Toigo, but I'm not too sure) about the WHL having a grudge against us, and I think we truly saw it tonight, with the WHL trying their best to hold us out of the record books.

I can't break down every call by the refs, but it was extremely blatant from the first call of the game. Interference on Kane? Give me a break, he's heading off to the bench, and the Calgary player comes flying off the bench straight for him. The Gallagher call after that, oh dear...

Now I know you can't say the refs won the game for Calgary or lost it for Vancouver, but they did everything in their power to tilt the tables in Calgary's favour. They effectively took the Giants right out of the game. We couldn't get involved in any physical play or it would result in a penalty. That is controlling the game, not allowing both teams to play evenly.

Apart from the refs, it was a good, even, 5 on 5 game. Even though Calgary was having power plays handed to them left and right, the Giants, once back to 5 on 5, were just as good out there. The Giants couldn't get any momentum going in their favour, but still stuck with the Hitmen most of the way. We never really had any big scoring chances, which I do give credit to the Hitmen for. They really locked down our forwards and didn't give the Giants anything to feed off of.

I really liked the way Gallagher played tonight, and he was creating a lot of chances out there tonight. I've also started noticing Manning a lot more out there and I have to say I'm impressed with the way he's developing. Our penalty kill could use a little bit of work, but if you're handed so many calls during a game, every team, no matter how good they are, is going to get scored on.

It'll be interesting to see how the boys play in Kelowna tonight. We really need a win over this Rockets squad. The Giants haven't lost 2 straight all season and I hope we don't see it tonight.

One note I thought I would add, one that I laugh about, was the Wednesday game against Tri City. With it being on Sportsnet, the WHL, trying to earn a good reputation, sent us 2 good refs (Hansen and Smith) which was very nice to see. To bad they didn't do the same for last night's game, but it clearly wasn't in their intentions.

[rednex50]

Now you know how the B's feel preety much each and every time Kirk and Smith ref a G's and B's game. Our goalie gets run over very blatantly no call...and in fact the goal counts. Yet we get within 2 ft of the crease, Sexy flops by a guy just breathing on him...and its 2 minutes.

As much as you want to think you were screwed...the B's have been screwed just as much...if not more.

Its time that you guys got your share of it as well...even though you won't like admitting that many games the G's get the calls in their favour.

[Highlander_Yank]

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.

Looks like Zalaski was wearing Hitmen Underoos last night, which is entirely consistent with how he's reffed T-Birds/Tips games in Everett.

[Arthur Fonzerelli]

Sounds like when the Giants lose it is always because of the bad officiating. A big part of the problem in last night's game against the Hitmen was the Giant's inability to contain a bigger, stronger team. In order to slow the Hitmen down the Giants were left to hooking and tripping. Give the Hitmen some credit, they completely shut down Kane, Zabotel and Nunn and after that line the G-mens offence is sporadic at best. It didn't help that Sexsmith played like a backup. vci34

[rinkrat]

The reffing is no excuse. All teams face poor reffing at one time or another during the season, as well as injuries and difficult schedules.
The good teams play through it.
Ya , I agree there were some questionable calls, but there were some blatant lazy penalties that the Giants took too (Henry).
Its a development league and the refs make mistakes.
Calgary, in my opinion, played alot better than the Giants last night.
They have a really great team and are dominant in all areas. They are actually fun to watch. Not alot of cheap stuff either which i liked to see.
The Giants will be in very tough to beat them in the finals if they get that far, in fact I think Kelowna might give them a better run in a seven game series.
I hate to say it, but the Hitmen look like a serious Memorial Cup contender to me.

[rinkrat]

It didn't help that Sexsmith played like a backup.

I hardly think you are any expert on goalies.

As for goalies I've watched Tucker play quite a bit in MML and don't believe he can be a starter in the dub. At this point Barnstable has the lead and after spending a season with goalie coach Sean Murray, Kraymer would still be a better backup to Sexsmith. Tucker can be as disruptive as Dustin Slade was and I'm not sure that Don Hay would expose his team to that again.

[scrunt]

Sounds like when the Giants lose it is always because of the bad officiating. A big part of the problem in last night's game against the Hitmen was the Giant's inability to contain a bigger, stronger team. In order to slow the Hitmen down the Giants were left to hooking and tripping. Give the Hitmen some credit, they completely shut down Kane, Zabotel and Nunn and after that line the G-mens offence is sporadic at best. It didn't help that Sexsmith played like a backup. vci34

I don't disagree with most of your comments, but 5-on-5 the game was pretty close. The Hitmen played an almost perfect road game, and the Giants were right with them for a while.

Of the seven penalties against the Giants, I would say six of them were legit calls but four were in that "grey area" which are called in games when the refs are calling everything very closely, and not called when they let the teams play. Any regular fan knows what I'm talking about. That is fine, it's part of the game, but it has to be consistent. I saw three or four similarly marginal plays by the Hitmen (a couple of solid cross-checks come to mind) that I would have been happy to see let go by the refs in a close, hard-fought game -- but only if the Giants were being given the same leeway which, to my biased eyes, they were not.

I agree that the Hitmen were the better team on the night, I'm just disappinted that the refs were a factor when they didn't need to be. It could have been such a much better game between two top teams.

[dondo]

I completely agree guys the reffing is no excuse for the loss.. it wasn't meant to be, so I suppose a bunch of you didn't read deep enough and skimmed too much to understand the point I was making.

Which was not that we as a team got robbed by the reffing but rather WE AS FANS got robbed of what was shaping up in the first ten minutes (13 minutes actually) to be one of the best games of the season. The officiating was obtrusive, petty and careless.

The reffing was the reason a premier playoff level game was regulated to a level of mediocrity and that was the cost.

The officials were completely unprofessional and as a result it ruined what should have been a great game. As I said we might have taken the loss anyway, but the refs crushed the spirit and drive of the game by calling ticky tack crap (and then not calling exactly the same stuff on the other side of the puck) .. and that is becoming far too frequent in the Dub for my liking.

As for the game we saw, the boys should have stepped it up and kept the puck out of their net. They needed to get inside on the Hitmen, and get second shots from good positions on the ice. Our PK was pretty soft on the man and did not challenge the point as much as I like -- and Sexsmith was not at his best, not his worst, but not his best either. The D was broken down well by good cycling by the Hitmen.