Hockey fans upset with the reffing.

There has been an extensive debate and some whining about the quality of the officiating in these Stanley Cup Finals. As a neutral observer I would say that the officiating has been equally bad on both ends of the ice. Edit: This hockey fans has an interesting take on the Sidney Crosby conspiracy against them. (humor)

The officiating during this spring's playoff run has been fantastically inconsistent, and even when you and I are both swearing at the TV...The players have to deal with it as best as they can. If they want to lobby the refs during or after the game, argue a call--I had no problem with Franzen saying, "He [bleeping dove" when he either hooked Craig Adams or Adams felt a stick and dropped, depending on your point of view, and I have no problem with Mike Babcock mentioning that a certain player who remained nameless got away with four interference penalties...But Babs wouldn't be lobbied into lamenting that his team lost because the refs screwed him over, and he refused to name names.

Hal Gill, cough cough. [Snapshots]

This guys is right about one thing former Bruins defender Hall Gill has looked like a pylon and a human obstruction machine and I can see why the Bruins no long employ him.

Links to the Stanley Cup Finals reffing debacle...

~I don't want to hear about the refs. [Mlive.com]

~Allegations out of the Redwings Dressing Room. [TSN]

~Maltby: Officiating 'blueprint for how regular season should go' [Puck Daddy]

… Just one last comment on the officiating: in Games 1 and 2, I was of the opinion that the officiating was awful both ways. Letting them play is a nice idea in concept, but in practice it just means the players gradually become too loose with the rules. Both teams were guilty of it in the first two games, with rampant interference being the most obvious of the play-to-play stuff. In Game 3, however, the officiating largely turned against the Wings.

Let me be clear: Detroit is not a team of perfect little angels, and I’m sure there were some things they didn’t get called for last night (I freely admit I was paying more attention to what the Pens were doing as far as penalizable offenses), but Pittsburgh truly got away with some really blatant crap last night. From tripping Ericsson in his own zone, to the high hit of interference on Helm in the final minutes, to the kicking of Osgood by Cooke, to the final uncalled trip to any dump-in involving Gill, not to mention the willful collusion on the the too many men situation.* If you’re going to call stuff like the Ericsson interference in the third, call it when the Pens do it too. It’s only fair.

Call it both ways, or don’t call it at all. That’s all I’d like. [read the whole story right here]

My response to this guy would be, the on ice officials have called it both way. Both ways the officiating has been god awful and consistently bad, compared to their performance during the regulars season and the first two rounds. That being said it does remind me of the WCHA games were they let the obstruction go.

Here is my favorite take of the whole reffing mess. [thePensblog]