Joel Quenneville Blames Referees for Ruining Good Hockey Game

Following Niklas Kronwall's hit on Martin Havlat Friday night, there's been plenty of discussion about the officiating in the Western Conference final. Actually, there's always a lot of discussion about officiating in the NHL, and following Detroit's 6-1 dismantling of Chicago on Sunday afternoon, Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville sounded off, blaming the referees for ruining a good hockey game. Seriously.

That sound you're hearing is Red Wings fans laughing out loud.

From Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune:

"We witnessed probably the worst call in the history of sports [Sunday] at the end of the [first] period there," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "A nothing play and they scored and it was 3-0. They (officials) ruined a good hockey game. They absolutely destroyed what was going on on the ice. "Our guys were battling and competing and doing what we have to do to get ourselves back into it. It was that call ... I've never seen anything like it."

With all due respect to Quenneville, he's absolutely out of his mind if he actually believes that. The call he's referring to was a roughing penalty on Matt Walker as time expired in the first period, leading to Valtteri Filppula's power play goal to give the Red Wings a 3-0 lead early in the second period. Not only was that call far from the worst call in the history of sports(!), this game was never close. It was domination from start to finish.

Chicago entered the day with an opportunity to even the series at two games apiece, on home ice, and with the added advantage of having Detroit play minus its two best players (future Hall of Famer Nicklas Lidstrom and all-everything center Pavel Datsyuk). How did Chicago respond? By getting blown out, and then melting down in the second and third periods with undisciplined penalties, including a pair of 10-minute misconducts to forward Ben Eager. You could counter that by arguing Chicago was also dealing with injuries, especially with its starting goaltender, Nikolai Khabibulin, but it also had the luxury of turning to its $5 million per year backup, Cristobal Huet.

Bottom line: Detroit showed up, Chicago didn't.

This is all part of a disturbing trend in the NHL (and, let's face it, all sports) where nobody ever seems to lose a game anymore ... they always have games taken from them. Here's a quick rundown of some of the events and players that were more responsible for ruining this game than a roughing penalty to Matt Walker at the 20-minute mark of the first period (aka: the worst call in the history of sports).

1) Cristobal Huet: The aforementioned Huet, a free agent signing this offseason, received the start in place of the injured Khabibulin and surrendered five goals on 26 shots. He was benched midway through the second period, only to return for the third period. Among the goals he allowed was this innocent looking wrist shot off the stick of Johan Franzen in the closing seconds of the first period, putting the Blackhawks in a 2-0 hole.




2) Marian Hossa's Shorthanded Goal: With an opportunity to strike first, the Blackhawks (owners of the No. 1 power play unit in the playoffs) were awarded an early man advantage after Henrik Zetterberg was sent off for roughing. Considering the Red Wings penalty kill was without Lidstrom and Datsyuk, this was quite a chance for Chicago. Instead of capitalizing, four Blackhawks were trapped below the goal line, allowing Marian Hossa and Filppula to break out on a two-on-one rush, resulting in a shorthanded goal to give the Wings a 1-0 lead.

3) Marian Hossa's Second Goal: After Jonathan Toews put Chicago on the board, cutting the deficit to 3-1, the Blackhawks followed it up by allowing Hossa to extend the Detroit lead back to three goals just 12 seconds later. At this point, the Blackhawks started their meltdown and the game was, essentially, over.

Let's face it, if a roughing call at the end of the first period led to that disastrous final 40 minutes of hockey, the Blackhawks are the most mentally fragile team in the league. The only people responsible for ruining a good hockey game on Sunday were the players dressed in red.