I don't know if they're a paper tiger as much as they have 2 of the top 5 players in the world and then questionable depth behind it. Draisaitl is just taking over. I've been somewhat underwhelmed by McDavid so far though. But their defense is better than years past, and I'm not sold on Skinner being able to take them very far.
Drai on the PP was lethal in the regular season and is just as lethal in the playoffs. 32 of his 52 goals were on the PP this season. That's kind of insane when you think about how little a player spends on the PP compared to 5 on 5. McDavid "only" had 21 of his 64 goals on the PP. Drai has a better shooting pct than McDavid (21 vs 18%). Nuts how little press he gets from the national media. 52 goals, 128 pts is an awesome season, but of course it is overshadowed by his teammate's 64 goal, 153 pt season.
Every single show I've listened to has started with it
It has been. Better than most of the series. the issue is the game just moves too quick and 3/4 of the time they seem to just guess that it was a penalty.
Its been brought up at GM meting in the past that maybe they should have a 3rd ref. Eyes in the sky approach. Probably not a bad idea. Having someone upstairs as well. Cant hurt with todays technology, shouldn't slow the game down, too much.
That and the game is so fast now it couldn't hurt to have extra eyes. Just someone who can be in their ear and say no that was a clean hit or hey Tkachuk just whacked Ullmark in the back of the head. I think it would go a long way in keeping the players a little more honest and it would help make the on ice officials job a little bit easier as well.
problem is, would having those eyes in the skies slow the game down too much if the refs went upstairs each time after making a call?
I don't think that would be the purpose. I think the ref upstairs would only be there on calls that were terribly wrong or something that was real egregious behind the play.
Poor officiating has long been an issue, what I don`t have patience for is inconsistent officiating. The refs set the bar as far as how much they`ll let go or not, drives me nuts where it appears they are going to let the boys play then call a ticky tack play a few shifts later.
Good grief the officiating sucks enough with 2 refs does anyone really think it will somehow miraculously improve with 3???? Get real. There aren't enough competent refs to make the 2 ref system work as it is, going to a 3 ref system will just make it worse. Think of how expansion waters down the quality of players in the NHL, the same thing will happen if another ref is added to the mix.
And while I'm ranting about the officiating- if I was on the NHL committee for officiating I would introduce a rule that if the ref closest to the play does not call a penalty then the ref farthest away cannot call it. It drives me crazy (not that I have far to go) when a ref right on top of the action lets a penalty go but the guy 25 feet away raises his arm.
