No surprise that there'd be many comments about "whiny" poor loser Flame fans. To be expected for sure.
But what does surprise me in all these comments is how many long-time knowledgeable commenters from teams all over the league thought the call on Coleman's goal showed poor judgment by the league. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just have good hockey without the league trying to micromanage the actual play.
Another example from this series was forcing Smith out of the game for concussion protocol. Imo Smith had a fair point when he questioned why the player isn't allowed to have some input into the decision.
And anyone want to talk about how appropriate the Department of Player safety decisions are?
At the end of the day don't we all just want to see the best hockey possible? Any way you look at it, the NHL could be a little more focused on the quality of the product and a bit less on squeezing every possible nickel out of the fans. Just my 2 cents of course.

Markstrom shat the bed....we were all expecting him to make a big difference, he did not.

- leonkennedy

No surprise that there'd be many comments about "whiny" poor loser Flame fans. To be expected for sure.
But what does surprise me in all these comments is how many long-time knowledgeable commenters from teams all over the league thought the call on Coleman's goal showed poor judgment by the league. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just have good hockey without the league trying to micromanage the actual play.
Another example from this series was forcing Smith out of the game for concussion protocol. Imo Smith had a fair point when he questioned why the player isn't allowed to have some input into the decision.
And anyone want to talk about how appropriate the Department of Player safety decisions are?
At the end of the day don't we all just want to see the best hockey possible? Any way you look at it, the NHL could be a little more focused on the quality of the product and a bit less on squeezing every possible nickel out of the fans. Just my 2 cents of course.
- itwasin

Wasn't the deciding factor in the series but Toronto did get the call right on the review. All Coleman had to do was let the puck roll in on it's own but seeing he 'helped' it in with his skate gave it the distinct kicking motion look. Good on TO for getting the call right. Is what it is man.

Oh and someone please check in on K-Man? Just want to make sure he's ok...

ot a Oilers or Flames fan but just give it a break...decision was the right one, he consciously kicked the puck the net. Todays players are so adept with their feet and furthermore he was looking at the puck as he kicked it in

Very subtle repositioning of the skate, you can see the motion was not a fluid stopping motion, there was a little extra to get at the puck, but still, it was called a goal on the ice, and the motion was not "a distinct KICKING motion." The goal should've counted, not because it was going in anyway, but because it was NOT A DISTINCT KICKING MOTION. I've never seen anyone try and kick anything with their foot angled the way Coleman's was. And besides, who's to say McMunster doesn't come screaming down the slot 1v5 and put in a nasty shot on the very next shift. The league doesn't have an answer for him right now. Someone needs to sweep the leg big time. I pray to the hockey gods for the Avs to end it tonight. Defense isn't winning the west this year.

I'm happy the Oilers "lost out" on the "vezina goalie". Also, Drai>any Flame ever.

Funny how Bieksa and Botterill, 2 retired professional hockey players both agreed it shouldn't have counted.
- Oildrum

When was the last time either played? Did they even have the redefined kicked in rule? No, they have been out of the game. TNT at least uses retired refs that know how the league works. SN uses one guy with NHL sources, a former ref from the last century and two ex-hockey players that sometimes admit to not knowing rules in the game.

Coleman looks at the puck. Duh. What's he going to look at, Mike Smith or the cowgirls behind the Oilers bench? The league messed up and there is no way to justify it. Was it the series in one call? Nope. But hat is bush league.

Scratch a flames fan and you see a Canucks fan underneath. 4 disallowed goals in the series, 2 each way. Calgary still had plenty of opportunity to win afterward, they just came up short. Maybe complain about the soft play of Gaudreau on the OT winner or the porous play of your 6 million dollar Lemon instead of pulling out Vancouver's 'It's not FAAYYER' mantra.
- OilyJay

Trevor Neufeld: Oilers Take the Series in five — The NHL Once Again Shows Bias
- Trevor_Neufeld_

Markstrom shat the bed....we were all expecting him to make a big difference, he did not.
- Symba007

This is why Im glad Holland failed to get Markstrom

This is why Im glad Holland failed to get Markstrom
- Reveen

Absolutely. Some of us in the Nucks thread warned the Pro Markstrom-Tanev-Toffoli types that this was coming. Seen the movie before.

Would not be shocked to see one of (if not both) Gaudraue and Tkachuk gone to the States.

Absolutely. Some of us in the Nucks thread warned the Pro Markstrom-Tanev-Toffoli types that this was coming. Seen the movie before.

Would not be shocked to see one of (if not both) Gaudraue and Tkachuk gone to the States.
- LordHumungous

Time for the Flames to blow it up and rebuild

Absolutely. Some of us in the Nucks thread warned the Pro Markstrom-Tanev-Toffoli types that this was coming. Seen the movie before.

Would not be shocked to see one of (if not both) Gaudraue and Tkachuk gone to the States.
- LordHumungous

Gaudreau will walk and Tkachuk wanted out last year.

Wasn't the deciding factor in the series but Toronto did get the call right on the review. All Coleman had to do was let the puck roll in on it's own but seeing he 'helped' it in with his skate gave it the distinct kicking motion look. Good on TO for getting the call right. Is what it is man.

Oh and someone please check in on K-Man? Just want to make sure he's ok...



- LordHumungous

I don't really care either way but the Oilers apparently didn't question the call. So why did the "situation room" overrule the call on the ice? Is this going to be the norm from now on in every playoff game? Or every game including regular season? Which begs the question: at what point do you no longer need referees on the ice? Shouldn't the NHL explain their criteria for overruling the on ice officials so we (and especially the referees) know what to expect?
And as long as we don't know what the criteria is then fans have every right to question the objectivity and potential bias of the calls.

Suck it 1230. Suck it all offseason.

Lets use logic here and not be stupid. It is extremely simple to quantify Trevor's point. First, the play was called a goal on the ice; therefore, you need indisputable evidence to overturn the call on the ice. For the league to "guess" Coleman's intent to reverse the call.... completely unacceptable. That goal was a goal all day long.

In saying that, the Flames didnt get robbed because they had leads all game that they blew within minutes. Its more quantifiable to say the Oilers would have tied it up in regulation then to say that goal should have been disallowed. Markstrom was simply horrendous. I dont think i have ever seen a series where a goalie got beat in the same spot over a dozen times!! (just below the glove). Markstrom was the reason the Flames had such a great season but the Oilers made him look like Mike smith on the other end of his manic episodes.

At the end of the day, Chucky was AWOL after game #1, defense was not the same without Tanev, the Oilers won the goal-tending battle (this is so tough to write, seems unbelievable with that sieve they got). and....the main reason the Oilers won the series was their best players were their best players night in and night out, consistency!! inspired hockey from the leaders. I dont think it was a lack of effort from Chucky, he just simply is no where near the talent level of Drasaitl and McNuggets. Likewise for Gadreau. Talented players but not 2 players that can drive their team to a cup. McNuggets and Draisaitl remind me of Taves and Kane in their hay day.
- Papshady

Good post! Twitter went wild with replays of many goals directed by a skate that counted. The NHL just cant seem to get consistency in how games are called & fans from all the other teams are of the same mind set. It's frustrating for the players & especially for the fans.

Oilers were full marks & heck, I bet McDavid & Draisatyl would have gone in hyper mode back up in Edmonton as no way they would have wanted a game 7 back in Calgary. But that isnt the point here. We waited 31 fcking years for a Battle of Alberta & the league robbed us of what would have been an incredibly anticipated Game 6.
How much excitement, hope & anticipation would there have been for the game 6.
As a fan, I have way more years behind me than ahead of me. I dont ever see us getting a top 3 pick let alone a first overall to maybe finally have a chance for a generational or franchise player. Not in my lifetime. Kinda sucks the hope out of you.

Best of luck Oilers & enjoy the ride. I wont need to watch too much going forward, the question will be what team & fan base the league is going screw over in the next round with their horrible inconsistent officiating & their joke of a Player Safety Department.

Good post! Twitter went wild with replays of many goals directed by a skate that counted. The NHL just cant seem to get consistency in how games are called & fans from all the other teams are of the same mind set. It's frustrating for the players & especially for the fans.

Oilers were full marks & heck, I bet McDavid & Draisatyl would have gone in hyper mode back up in Edmonton as no way they would have wanted a game 7 back in Calgary. But that isnt the point here. We waited 31 fcking years for a Battle of Alberta & the league robbed us of what would have been an incredibly anticipated Game 6.
How much excitement, hope & anticipation would there have been for the game 6.
As a fan, I have way more years behind me than ahead of me. I dont ever see us getting a top 3 pick let alone a first overall to maybe finally have a chance for a generational or franchise player. Not in my lifetime. Kinda sucks the hope out of you.

Best of luck Oilers & enjoy the ride. I wont need to watch too much going forward, the question will be what team & fan base the league is going screw over in the next round with their horrible inconsistent officiating & their joke of a Player Safety Department.
- Kevin R

Battle in the sense that the Flames never took the Oilers seriously all series ? Sutter and the Flames kept going on about Edmonton being a one player team. They were more concerned about gooning it up and cheap shots.

I was looking forward to seeing Tkachuk post game. Was he even in the hand shake line?
- doon

No I couldn't find him in the footage from sportsnet when I reviewed it. Can anyone confirm? Why isn't that getting more coverage? I don't think I've ever heard of someone skipping the handshake before. I know lucic almost ripped some dudes (Gallagher?) arm off back when he was in Boston.

If he did skip, that shows a massive lack of maturity and not something I would respect coming from one of the "leaders" of the group.

I don't really care either way but the Oilers apparently didn't question the call. So why did the "situation room" overrule the call on the ice? Is this going to be the norm from now on in every playoff game? Or every game including regular season? Which begs the question: at what point do you no longer need referees on the ice? Shouldn't the NHL explain their criteria for overruling the on ice officials so we (and especially the referees) know what to expect?
And as long as we don't know what the criteria is then fans have every right to question the objectivity and potential bias of the calls.
- itwasin

Wrong or right, the Coleman non-goal did not make or break the series. Calgary shat the bed three games in a row. They blew multiple two-goal leads. They never really found their footing. Edmonton exploited a weakness on Markstrom's glove hand, that was the real difference in the series. I imagine Markstrom will be busy correcting it and be better next season.

I was happy Jankrok finally got a goal. Guy works hard and I hope they keep him around. Backland and Coleman were studs upfront and Guds and Tanev were the stable influence on the backend.

Will be an interesting off-season. But we have a lot of time to go over it.

At least now I can get to sleep at a normal hour and give my liver a rest.

Also (frank) ESPN, they have done a horrible job with the playoffs. I have to listen to Mexican soccer announcers pretend that they know about hockey.
:thumbs-down:

Go Flames!

Maybe the leads that Flames blew was because refs kept giving us penalties and no calling much on Oilers to change the momentum in favor of the Oilers. I have watched hockey my whole life, i can tell you how bias reffs were in this against the Flames. Also the call back goal on Coleman was ridiculous as it gets. No challenge from the Oilers yet Toronto decided to call back the goal. If this doesn't prove fixed, then nothing can. They want McDavid vs McKinnon, it's that simple. It's all about putting great product on the stage to showcase to the world to drive your profits up.

Our emotions as fans whether you are a Flames fan or an Oilers fan are played with by the league. You guys won today but your time to complain will come soon. Then you will see that we are all just in here to be taken advantage of to help league reach higher profits.
- hockey4hockey

(checks box score) Flames 0/2 on man advantage, Oil 1/1. You're right, totally jobbed by the ref's.

Gaudreau will walk and Tkachuk wanted out last year.
- Reveen

It's pretty common knowledge that Gaudraue wants to be in Philly and Tkachuk in STL. Is what it is.

I don't really care either way but the Oilers apparently didn't question the call. So why did the "situation room" overrule the call on the ice? Is this going to be the norm from now on in every playoff game? Or every game including regular season? Which begs the question: at what point do you no longer need referees on the ice? Shouldn't the NHL explain their criteria for overruling the on ice officials so we (and especially the referees) know what to expect?
And as long as we don't know what the criteria is then fans have every right to question the objectivity and potential bias of the calls.
- itwasin

They did so because the wrong call was made on the ice. I don't think it's 'the norm' but you may see more of it considering the speed of the game and where the refs are postioned on the ice when questionable calls are made. Either way...this call did not cost the Flames the series. Not anywhere near as impactful as the Gelina goal called back in 2004 which was clearly across the line.

It's pretty common knowledge that Gaudraue wants to be in Philly and Tkachuk in STL. Is what it is.
- LordHumungous

Blessing in disguise

How about we listen to Coleman himself...

"Maybe I don't know the rule. I thought you could direct the puck into the net as long as it wasn't a distinct kicking motion? My skate didn't leave the ice to kick anything. I just angled my skate to direct it in. So I don't understand why they called this a kick".

So basically you just admitted that you deliberately manouvered your skate to direct the puck into the net. Which is exactly what Kevin Bieksa said. You can see his eyes on the puck and a deliberate pivot in his foot to direct it in. No it didn't look like he was kicking a soccer ball, but that's not really what happens too often.

Anyway, a questionable call, but maybe let's drop the make believe story of how Coleman was just trying to stop and was being pushed and didn't even try to touch the puck. False.
- Cooleus

That was my take away from the postgame interview. He knew what he was doing but he thought that he found a way to do it within the rules. He wanted to get around the spirit of the rule within the confines of the wording of the rule. Called back was the right ruling every time.