Players and Coach Whine About Refs - Mark of True Losers
Some Maple Leafs showed on Thursday night that they, and Coach Paul Maurice, are literally, true blue losers. After a 3-2 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, multiple Leafs, including Coach Maurice, made comments in their press conferences either directly or indirectly blaming the refs for the loss. Doing so they showed that they have one of the biggest marks of a bunch of losers, focusing on externalities and shifting blame instead of focusing on what they did wrong and how they could’ve done things better to win that game.
Maurice stated, “You know, there’s a good story here. There was a high-stick goal [by Carolina that counted]. Blake’s puck was in the net [on a disallowed play that went to video review in the third period], and there was a lousy call on Antropov. But, that’s my judgement. That’s the way I feel, it’s the way my hockey players feel, and it’s what the [TV] camera looked like.”
He also added, ” So, let’s just do it this way
I’ve been out here and friendly long enough. If you want to get the story, go ask the people that made the judgements. We disagree. That’s all I have to say.”
Amazing that Maurice could see the puck in the net on Blake’s shot, especially since you can’t even see it go in on any of the closeups in video replay. The guy must have the eyes of a hawk to see that from the bench! As for the Antropov penalty, Maurice is right, it was an incorrect call. It was called a hook when it was in reality clearly a slash.
Sorry Paul, but your judgement and your players judgement doesn’t count for anything and certainly doesn’t change rules!
Darcy Tucker commented that “Blakey’s puck was definitely in,”. Again, amazing that Darcy Tucker’s view of the net was somehow far clearer than the refs and most impressively, than the multiple angles of video review that showed absolutely no evidence the puck was in.
Of his penalty, Antropov said “I disagree with that [penalty] call. Stillman was standing still while I was skating back to my bench and I just put my stick on top of his. I thought I could do that.” Well Nik, placing your stick on top off another guys is completely legal, however swinging your stick is a slash, even if it hits the stick, but especially if it hits his hand like your did.
There was a lot of bitching about the refs, but the Leafs and Maurice didn’t mention things like Hal Gill’s inability to clear a puck, or of a sloppy change with the play moving to their end that left them in an odd-man situation in their own zone.
They could have said, “Well we probably would’ve been ok if Gill could’ve just taken care of that easy clear”, or “Well we should no better than to try and make changes with the play racing towards our end”, or “well Antropov should really know better than to swing his stick at any part of a player”. They didn’t. They blamed the refs.
Here’s a tip kids, losers blame refs. Losers externalize their problems and try and shift the blame to anyone but themselves. Winners, whether they got screwed or not, internalize. They ask what could they have done to have put themselves in a better situation.
With the Leafs playing so poorly, there is a lot of room for such internalization. It’s understandable to be frustrated when things seem to be pilling up against you, but blaming losses on external factors is rarely warranted and does absolutely nothing to get you closer to winning next time. The Leafs need to remember they’re a group of professionals and start acting like it.
Breakdown of “bad calls”:
Here are videos. You make the call.
1) Blake disallowed goal: None of these angles show the puck going over the line. In fact, the overhead cam clearly shows the goal line and one thing you’ll never see is the puck behind it. Remember folks, the puck has to go COMPLETELY over the goal line. If anyone can see that, please post a comment with the time in the video it occurs.
2) Call on Antropov: Refs DID get this one wrong. It’s not a hook. It’s clearly a slash. Notice that he doesn’t place his stick on top of the other players, or go for a stick lift. He clearly takes a short chop with his stick which seems to hit the other players hand. Anyone want to explain to me how that isn’t a penalty? Make sure to read the rule book first as to not embarrass yourself! Here’s a link! http://www.nhl.com/hockeyu/rulebook/rule85.html
Note: Thanks to Jeffler of FaceoffCircle.net for posting these vids to YouTube.
Stumble it!
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:42 am
When you’re a bunch of losers, everything is someone else’s fault and everyone else is always wrong. Strange that I don’t see the “winning” teams bitching and whining when things don’t go their way.
The one thing we can look forward to though, is that the laffs are only 4 points away from being dead last in the league. The only question now is when? My bet is on mid-Feb.
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:58 am
The funny part is that Leafs fans WANT TO LOSE.
Get that through your thick, bitter skulls. Why would we complain other than for the fact that Koharski is an idiot? It doesn’t make sense.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:29 pm
This article is about professional players and coaches, not professional couch potatoes.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
This article, and entire website for that matter, is clearly made up of leaf haters with too much time on their hands, NOT leaf fans lobbying for change. If the creators of this site want to be the bitchy, whiny LOSERS that they accuse the leafs of being, then go ahead but know that you’re not fooling anyone. It may not look like it right now, but mark my words, the cup will take longer to go to ottawa, buffalo or montreal than toronto.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I’d also like to point out that it isn’t just the “losers” that bitch about refs, case in point any sens fan when calls don’t go their way, and who could ever forget lindy ruff, whether his team has a decent record or not.
February 6th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Way to completely miss the point “real” leaf fan.
“Losers” doesn’t refer to the teams record, it refers to an ATTITUDE.
Leaf fans like you are the problem, you’re so diehard it makes you blind and you go off spouting assinine statements.
With “fans” like you representing the Leafs, no wonder every other city in the league hates us.
February 6th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
well “teach”, did you read what was published carefully? i’m glad the leafs reacted the way they did in this game because for the first time they gave a shit, whereas in the several other games decided by shitty refs, they gave only exasperated looks to the media. if this site was really made by leaf fans, they’d spend their time and effort on bringing change, however difficult it may be, than whining (which by the way proves this article is quite hypocritical) about the on-ice product to others who read and don’t really care.
February 6th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Well teach I’d love to hear you thoughts on how to “bring change”. They should be rivetting.
I’d also love for you to rebutt any of my points in the article about the calls being correct.
It seems to me the only person here whining is you because you’re upset that some Leafs fans have opened their eyes and aren’t just blindly following the team saying “Thank you, may I have some more.”
Again though I invite you to outline your plan for how fans can attempt to bring change OTHER THAN dissent.
February 9th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
I would say the Leafs organization is a marketing machine of genius proportions. They some how make millions of dollars by selling a group of pathetic losers as a religion. “Stick with us and you will be rewarded by the prophetized coming of the cup and then you can rub all your non-believer friends faces in it”. And that is how the Leafs can blame refs for pathetic games and have their fans lap it up like the dumb animals they are.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:09 am
Allison Hannigan…
The pen is really mightier than the sword, as you have proven here….