Too Little Too Late

Well the cinderella story of the season has come to an end. After a devastating and controversial loss to the Philadelphia Flyers the Washington Capitals have been eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs. Not only was Washington ripped off in game seven, the Flyers didn't even deserve to win the series. The tremendous play by the young stars of both Washington and Philadelphia made this series the most exciting series to watch. It had end-to-end action with great saves, big hits, and unreal snipes. This series was a true gongshow!
Now lets get talk about the travesties in game seven.
First of all, the officiating was brutual. Several missed icings and penalties. And let me just say how does Philly's second goal not get called goaltender interference. The Capitals were called for goaltender inference THREE times throughout the series; all of which were borderline calls and not one resulted in a goal. Patrick Thoresen of the the Flyers intentionally ran the Caps defender into Cristobal Huet. After replay you can see Thoresen drop his shoulder into Shaone Morrisonn Huet slides ten feet out of his net and then they score. After all the penalties they were calling throughout the playoffs how do you miss one like this in game seven! Not only should the goal have not been allowed, Thoresen should have received a penalty for goaltender interference. Veteran officials such as Don Koharski and Paul Devorski should know have the knowledge and experience to make this call. Instead they turn a blind eye. Speaking of blind eyes, apparently they all turned blind in the third period. There was not one call made from the six minute mark left in the second until that garbage call in overtime. Did they leave their whistles in the dressing room?
I don't mind if the referee puts it away and lets the teams play, which is what I saw happen in the third and even though there were penalties he let them go both ways. But how does one let all those calls go and then call a questionable tripping penalty in overtime of game seven. If you need another person's more professional opinion check out The Hockey News' writer Adam Proteau's blog.

The most valuable player of this series was indeed Cristobal Huet. Huet stood on his head throughout the series and made numerous amounts of big saves. He gave his team a chance to win each and every night and was a big reason the Caps were able to claw their way back into the series. Unfortunately for Huet, Milan Jurcina forgot to pick up his man out front and Joffrey Lupul burried the winner. A great way to win but a tough way to lose. The Flyers will now play the Montreal Canadiens in the second round. Unfortunately we won't be able to see the Ovechkin vs Crosby match-up many people hoped for but hey there's always next year right.

Second round predictions are next!