Wings vs Flames: Game 5 suspension list  

Iginla was quoted (check out the NHL.com game review) as saying that the last few minutes, they were out there to fight. Ironic that such admissions have been grounds for suspensions in the past. It's one of hockey's unwritten rules. You don't say you're out to do it, you just go out and do it.

It's unnerving that even the Calgary news sites have gotten comments on how poorly Calgary handled themselves in the last minutes of the period, yet the sports media have downplayed everything. My concern to all of this is that if the NHL doesn't hand down appropriate punishment, they're essentially giving the green light to the other teams in the league to pull this sort of mayhem when they're on the losing end in a playoff series.

I hope they show more class tomorrow. Even if they were to come back and beat Detroit in the next two games by insane margins, you'd never see that kind of behavior from the Wings, and that's because it simply isn't acceptable.

Take a look at the stats for the Flames home record. Consider the number of penalties called on them and against their opponents when compared for home and away games.

The NHL is not happy with it, but the Flames 'somehow' see far more penalties called against their opponents when the games are in Calgary than when the games are elsewhere. The atmosphere in Calgary seems to have an effect on the refs. I think that makes a pretty big impact on why they got as far as they did.

The reason that they hauled Kipper at that point was because there was alot of jawing going on between the benches with the Wings basivcally saying that they were going to take a run at him...Pierre Maguire was reporting it on NBC as he was standing between the benches...lets go back a couple of years when the Flames went on their run to the Stanley Cup...remember this...."A vicious elbow from Wings defenceman Derian Hatcher ended Lombardi's first foray into the NHL playoffs and left the youngster with a bitter taste in his mouth during 11 months of inactivity courtesy of the concussion."....Hatcher was not assessed a suspension until after the series was over.....short memory I think

That's just it though. The Wings have not been going out of their way to hit Kipper. Listen to interviews, they're going after the defense. The game plan is to wear down the defense, not to hurt the goalie. Kipper has everyone believing that he's being interfered with because he doesn't know how to deal with seeing Holmstrom's rear end in his face 90% of the time he's out on the ice.

I was watching Pierre talk too. The chatter between benches absolutely didn't involve going after Kipper. And even if it did, recall that Lidstrom came up on "sounds of the game" telling the refs to watch the hacking at Dom after the whistle.

As far as the Hatcher hit, I saw that too. It was questionable, but at least the NHL dealt with it. In my opinion, if you want to hurt someone, you should do it the right way, such as when Cleary had Phaneuf out on his feet, or when whoever it was had the hit on Iginla that split his face open on the glass. Face to face, hard clean hits. None of this stick swinging crap or cheap shot punching.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that 5 on 2 never happens. The most they'll do is 5 on 3. The other penalties don't actually start until one of the earlier ones gets released. In effect, they could be off for like 4 minutes before their penalty time even starts.

But yeah, there were definitely some crowded moments in the sin bin today.

To be honest, I haven't been happy with the officiating through the entire series. For as much as Calgary has been gifted with some pretty weak calls, even Detroit has has their share. Just look at the penalty shot. Cleary did in fact manage to get a shot off. As much as I love that he scored, I don't think it should have been a penalty shot. Other breakaways this series most definitely should have been, but weren't.

I'd much rather see the refs make good calls when the infractions happen, rather than trying to play catchup and give out make-up calls the entire series.

I'm going to guess that Vancouver is likely going to be eliminated. It's hard to change momentum when you're down, but it's even harder to take it back once you lose it. I'm thinking Game 7 is going to be a heck of a show.