HabsCast Hockey Blog

I hate to blame the refs, but after witnessing the Hurricanes-Panthers game today (October 31, 2007), I feel like saying something.

As many of you have heard, the Panthers were irate with Eric Staal and the Hurricanes for this play (Watch Video) that happened last year.

Ever since then, the Panthers have said that the Canes are nothing but divers, and the local newspapers in Florida had an article reiterating that today before the game.

So of course, today (October 31, 2007) the Canes played the Panthers in Florida and the refs were undoubtedly looking to nab Carolina for any little infraction that could be considered a dive. I don’t know what they were looking at, but they called two Hurricanes for diving. I saw at least 70 games last season, and I don’t remember the Hurricanes getting called once for diving (I am probably forgetting one somewhere, but still).

If they were actual dives, I probably would be pissed at the players who dove, not the refs, but these calls were horrible. On Chad LaRose’s “dive”, Jokinen pushed Chad into the boards, yet Chad somehow dove to draw a penalty. Justin Williams was basically mugged from behind by Nathan Horton (being grabbed, pushed around) but Williams gets called for diving. Of course, both calls lead directly to Florida goals. A few people might say “Oh, you’re just a homer and don’t think anyone on your team would dive,” but there are actually many Florida fans who have sympathy for us (the same fans who were gonna bring snorkels and score cards to the game) because the refs made up diving calls against us just because there would be pressure to do so by the Panther fans.

There is little doubt in my mind that these refs picked up the paper this morning and read about what happened last year, and got the “We have to call Carolina for diving” mentality. I dunno, it just annoys me how refs can be influenced by the media. Bogus calls lead to Florida goals and probably cost Carolina a point or two.

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