April 18th, 2010

I'm not very impressed with the refereeing in the Montreal/Washington game. Perhaps I am being biased, but after watching replay's, I'm not so sure. The goal where Mike Knuble was just on the fringe of the crease was certainly questionable, but I do believe that it was not the correct call. If Jaroslav Halak did want to move up anymore, the was no possible way of doing so. And let's be honest, do you really think Halak wanted to be where he was with that shot being taken where it was? Then there was the one where Hal Gill "shoved" a Washington Capital into Halak. I felt that the the play should have been whistled down at least. Not finished there, before Alex Ovechkin's shot went across the line, he speared Halak into the net. That was defiantly spearing or goaltender interference. Plus there was the call on Benoit Pouliot where it was just another slash that would usually go unnoticed by the ref. I can understand Mike Cammalleri's first slash where he broke Carlson's stick but when it happens twice, you've got to let it go. I mean, I can break those sticks with little effort, so really it's barley a slash. Are you telling me if Chris Pronger did that he's be called? No way. Plus, that play led to Ovechkin skating to his bench with the broken stick. I don't care if it was harmless, because I know it was, but it's still a penalty in the rule book. Oh well, perhaps it was just me. I was glad to see the OT winner go in clean. Montreal should be happy going into the Bell Centre tied with Washington.

TSN did a beautiful piece on Taylor Pyatt before the Phoenix vs. Detroit game. I've been a fan of his while he played on the Vancouver and became an even bigger supporter of his since the incident last year.

Phoenix just grabbed the lead quickly. Hockey and studying for me for the rest of the day. The hockey I suppose evens out the crummy studying!

All my Best; Enjoy Life
Ryan Francis