Imagine that the league really is crooked. What would you do?

[ImpartialNHLfan]

It is crooked, Free Masons run the show. Just look at the black and white outfits the refs wear with the orange strip on the sleeve (orange is code for 33). Come on people get woke.

 

[paulhiggins]

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Bettman and Jacobs are crooked. MLSE needs to usurp Jacobs as chairman. That is step #1. It is be a monster step for sure. But I think Tannenbaum needs to form a coalition with Molson in and Dolan in. Then start to shake the tree publicly. Dolan can do the damage. He is a wildcard and won't be pushed around by either Bettman or Jacobs. All he needs to say is he has a group of owners that don't support the CAP. Then when Bettman fires back at BOD mtg all he says is ok well Rangers, Leafs and Habs are no longer going to fund any more league socialist activities. The socialists can go get a loan to cover costs. This usually kills the socialists when they realize sugar daddy has stopped the tap.

Bring in a Canadian owner to become chairman---Molson likely. Then start the process of neutering Bettman until he retires. Start by getting rid of the CAP. Bring back a free market. All good things start when people are free. Then force Bettman to produce on US TV deal. When he can't then arrivederci.

 

[Fogelhund]

While there are times that I look at the officiating, and wonder; "WTF". While I look at the reality that no Canadian team has won since 1993.... I also realize that half of the first overall picks have gone to Canadian teams in the last decade... sometimes screwing over important US franchises. Would Connor McDavid, and Auston Matthews serve the NHL better, in a other US franchises? Absolutely.

I think there are bias in officiating, and some very poorly called games, but I'm not sure that I'd buy the full NHL hates Canadian teams story just yet.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

While there are times that I look at the officiating, and wonder; "WTF". While I look at the reality that no Canadian team has won since 1993.... I also realize that half of the first overall picks have gone to Canadian teams in the last decade... sometimes screwing over important US franchises. Would Connor McDavid, and Auston Matthews serve the NHL better, in a other US franchises? Absolutely.

I think there are bias in officiating, and some very poorly called games, but I'm not sure that I'd buy the full NHL hates Canadian teams story just yet.

I watched late night TV highlights but Canucks and Habs got royally screwed by bad calls last night. To the point where both coaches sounded off. How can a Bruins player run best Canuck thru boards 2 seconds after he had passed the puck and both refs missed it. Guaranteed if it was Marchand taken for a ride like that Chara comes in and bingo bango it is a 5 minute board and game misconduct call ASAP. and did you see 6 man on ice call against Habs when Habs up by a goal in Jersey under 2 minutes left. OMG. Please. Joke joke joke.

 

[Mickey Marner]

This thread is about as silly as the previous one that was locked. They're not nefarious, they're nepotics. MLSE should've used their clout to rise higher among the inner circle.

 

[Fogelhund]

I watched late night TV highlights but Canucks and Habs got royally screwed by bad calls last night. To the point where both coaches sounded off. How can a Bruins player run best Canuck thru boards 2 seconds after he had passed the puck and both refs missed it. Guaranteed if it was Marchand taken for a ride like that Chara comes in and bingo bango it is a 5 minute board and game misconduct call ASAP. and did you see 6 man on ice call against Habs when Habs up by a goal in Jersey under 2 minutes left. OMG. Please. Joke joke joke.

Canadian teams collectively, are a net -2 in penalties drawn/taken.... I'm just not seeing anything to back up a casual observation.... Yes, I've seen plenty of bad calls, against many teams... both calls, and non-calls....

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Canadian teams collectively, are a net -2 in penalties drawn/taken.... I'm just not seeing anything to back up a casual observation.... Yes, I've seen plenty of bad calls, against many teams... both calls, and non-calls....

Of course it is called game management. Games can be neutralized once they are over in garbage time. Much like how the NBA does it. But Canadian teams star players do not get the calls that US star players do. It was on full display last night.

 

[killer1980]

Don't confuse incompetence with illegality.

 

[AreBe]

Let me tell you what is not going to happen- Canada's 2 media empires that have tied themselves to the NHL will not go off the script found in the Gospel According to Hockey Night in Canada on NHL Infallibility . We get it every Saturday with that Mac Lean voice-over at the start of every HNIC broadcast and Moron Man eats it up.

And the hockey industry in Canada is eating at the buffet of false hope they set out for Moron Man who pays fat bucks for hockey tournaments knowing scouts will be there and that all this hockey stuff is a really great investment- the hockey industry must keep preaching that Gospel of NHL Infallibility going

It is crooked, Free Masons run the show. Just look at the black and white outfits the refs wear with the orange strip on the sleeve (orange is code for 33). Come on people get woke.

As Moron Man, the chief Leafs Nation philosopher king points out, "Each and every one of those calls against the Leafs was a legitimate penalty. Lack of discipline. You cannot just take your hand off your stick and grab the other guy and throw him into the boards. Stupid Leafs took stupid penalties and deserved to lose," and in the next breath says, "Playoff hockey is called differently , sure Boston players took their hands off their stick and threw Leafs players into the boards, but that is just part of the game. That's why you need toughness in the playoffs. Leafs are too soft." Moron Man will never ever understated that toughness for the Leafs results in a legitimate penalty call.

Then force Bettman to produce on US TV deal. When he can't then arrivederci.

Bettmans is trying to get that fat US tv deal. You try selling an Ottawa Winnipeg cup final on Madison Ave. Such a ratings crater it impacts other shows. Ivy League lawyer MBA accountant types now run the professional sports leauges, and not the Boy Scouts, and they have drinks with their old classmates who run the networks. The NHL must show Madison Ave. has nothing to fear- so the league set up a playoff system that takes out Canadian teams - try to group them together so they knock each other out. Zero chance of an all Canadian eastern conference semi-final. The NHL is still gate driven and the NHL knows that is a problem. So the NHL needs a fat US TV deal and the NHL knows that the threat of Canadian teams advancing deep in the playoffs are killing the TV deal, but the Canadian teams are required to pay the bills during the regular season. How do you fix it? Thank the Canadian teams during the regular season and then take them out in the playoffs.

While there are times that I look at the officiating, and wonder; "WTF". While I look at the reality that no Canadian team has won since 1993.... I also realize that half of the first overall picks have gone to Canadian teams in the last decade... sometimes screwing over important US franchises. Would Connor McDavid, and Auston Matthews serve the NHL better, in a other US franchises? Absolutely.
.

San Antonio has won the NBA championship but that is the exception that proves the rule. One of the Yankees or the Red Sox are almost always in the playoffs, to the TV networks delight. Sure Green Bay has won the Super Bowl, but because of betting and other factors, TV ratings for football are off the charts. Note: It's not by mistake that NYC and LA have 2 teams each.

In my view the Leafs will be pushed around with impunity with a view of having them eliminated so that the NHL can get that problem solving US TV deal, and when the Leafs do any shoving, it will be called and Moron Man will correctly point out the legitimacy of the call.

Only way to fix it is to go all Soviet Red Army team wave after wave of outrageous talent and skill

 

[hockeyes]

I am pretty sure they are just incompetent and a few have their own bias's. Also, hockey has one of the highest luck factors of major sports, to properly rig games would be very blatant. Not to say you couldn't press the scale but it wouldn't be insurmountable by the better and disciplined team.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Heh I agree with you. Too many of us thinking we first and then our kids are going to the show. The dream never dies. So we spend many many thousands of $$$ every year on the dream. It is why I always says hockey is the mid and older age white guy Canadians dream. But times are a changin I think. There are fewer and fewer of us.

 

[Srsly]

I believe the original poster is referring to the perceived bias that officiating in the NHL favors smaller market US teams in an attempt to garner NFL level revenue.

The thought process is that NHL level executives consider the higher population density of the US to make for higher potential revenue than a traditional Canadian market. Some of that Super Bowl pie so to speak.

Canadian teams will maintain their following, while fans based in the United States will jump on the bandwagon when they see their local team doing well, hopefully maintaining those viewers for future generations.

I don’t think this is the case but I’ve seen it discussed before.

If I were an owner finding myself in this situation, I likely would go for a skilled approach but not to the point of ignoring two way play completely. I would likely discourage body checks and focus more on poke checks and other lower risk defensive maneuvers.

 

[AreBe]

You are all brilliant!

I am pretty sure they are just incompetent and a few have their own bias's. Also, hockey has one of the highest luck factors of major sports, to properly rig games would be very blatant. Not to say you couldn't press the scale but it wouldn't be insurmountable by the better and disciplined team.

Pressing the scale- that is what the NBA allegedly does to help the Celtics etc. No call too goofy to help the Celtics. Yet they do not always win. A lot of things have to go well, but superior talent, work ethic and I suppose composure can overcome biased officiating.

Heh I agree with you. Too many of us thinking we first and then our kids are going to the show. The dream never dies. So we spend many many thousands of $$$ every year on the dream. It is why I always says hockey is the mid and older age white guy Canadians dream. But times are a changin I think. There are fewer and fewer of us.

I think servral things happen on this forum, and I do like this forum very much, but there seems to be a need to keep the false consciousnesses blue pilling going - the Canadian sports networks are all in on hockey at considerable expense and must keep pushing the dream that your town will have a parade if its players keep to the Code of the Gladiators, the myth of having a chance of making it to the NHL and being a millionaire that will solve all financial problems for the entire family if the Code of the Gladiators is taught early enough and often enough, especially at far off and expensive tournaments. There is too much money in hockey in Canada to be able to afford revealing that NHL infallibility is an illusion.

If I were an owner finding myself in this situation, I likely would go for a skilled approach but not to the point of ignoring two way play completely. I would likely discourage body checks and focus more on poke checks and other lower risk defensive maneuvers.

Totally agree: In the NHL that means you must, must score on your power-plays, you must not spend time arguing with refs, you must get back on defense, you must control the puck, and you must go wave after wave after wave of unrelenting and demoralizing offensive pressure.

 

[Cams]

Of course the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers are almost always in the playoffs. There is no cap in baseball, they can spend on talent all they want - hard to compete with teams like that that have an unlimited supply of cash when there is no restraining system like a cap. One year recently, the Yankees paid out more in luxury tax than the Tampa Bay Rays entire payroll!

Plus, baseball has a lot more fans in the US - it's America's Great Past Time or something like that. Canada doesn't have a lot of large cities, plus we have 1/10 the population to draw fans from.

 

[TVs Frank]

Since Bettman took over in 1993, 5 Canadian teams have made it to the Stanley cup finals. If what you are saying is true and the NHL rigs the playoffs to boost US exposure, then why have any Canadian teams make it to the finals? And why would a rigged league allow the Oilers to win 4 draft lotteries in 5 years and let McDavid get drafted and go play (toil) up in Edmonton ? Why would a rigged league allow our Maple Leafs to draft Auston Matthews, an American?
You really believe the Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks in 2011 because that game seven was rigged? Guess Canuck fans did the right thing by rioting, eh.
I want the Leafs to win as much as anyone, but acting like a petulant, spoiled, 10-year-old because you don’t get what you want makes our fan-base look stupid.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Since Bettman took over in 1993, 5 Canadian teams have made it to the Stanley cup finals. If what you are saying is true and the NHL rigs the playoffs to boost US exposure, then why have any Canadian teams make it to the finals? And why would a rigged league allow the Oilers to win 4 draft lotteries in 5 years and let McDavid get drafted and go play (toil) up in Edmonton ? Why would a rigged league allow our Maple Leafs to draft Auston Matthews, an American?
You really believe the Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks in 2011 because that game seven was rigged? Guess Canuck fans did the right thing by rioting, eh.
I want the Leafs to win as much as anyone, but acting like a petulant, spoiled, 10-year-old because you don’t get what you want makes our fan-base look stupid.

27 f*in years man. 27 years. I guess every Canadian owner and manager on 7 teams must all be very very dumb. But of course there are more hockey fans in Canada then in the entire US of A. Because Canadians don't care about distribution. It is love of game.
Honestly who gets who is completely irrelevant when drawing fans. The idear is you post teams all over the US of A map and you get then get ur big deal as you have distribution local, regional and then national. At least that how is how I have heard it from Bettman.
But to get there you have PAIN. Because you have to support half the league with a CAP otherwise the whole things fails before you get ur TV deal done. and the NHL (its rich teams) have funded things many many times. and you need to have parity because otherwise fans stop showing up in Cali, Florida etc. and we need fans and we need Canadians to fund over 50% of league while we get there. and gues what Canadians will watch playoffs no matter what.

Well guess what the old assumptions are a changin. Toronto showed it last year and Sportsnet was shocked. People tuned out. The golden goose assumption may be a changin in the big smoke. Even the big smoke has changed to the concrete jungle.

 

[Papa Cherry]

Bettman and Jacobs are crooked. MLSE needs to usurp Jacobs as chairman. That is step #1. It is be a monster step for sure. But I think Tannenbaum needs to form a coalition with Molson in and Dolan in. Then start to shake the tree publicly. Dolan can do the damage. He is a wildcard and won't be pushed around by either Bettman or Jacobs. All he needs to say is he has a group of owners that don't support the CAP. Then when Bettman fires back at BOD mtg all he says is ok well Rangers, Leafs and Habs are no longer going to fund any more league socialist activities. The socialists can go get a loan to cover costs. This usually kills the socialists when they realize sugar daddy has stopped the tap.

Bring in a Canadian owner to become chairman---Molson likely. Then start the process of neutering Bettman until he retires. Start by getting rid of the CAP. Bring back a free market. All good things start when people are free. Then force Bettman to produce on US TV deal. When he can't then arrivederci.

Too many weak markets and high Canadian taxes for the league to grow without revenue sharing.

If the league was crooked like the MLB, (ie the houston Astros) then I would definately stop watching and supporting the NHL.

 

[AreBe]

Since Bettman took over in 1993, 5 Canadian teams have made it to the Stanley cup finals. If what you are saying is true and the NHL rigs the playoffs to boost US exposure, then why have any Canadian teams make it to the finals? And why would a rigged league allow the Oilers to win 4 draft lotteries in 5 years and let McDavid get drafted and go play (toil) up in Edmonton ? Why would a rigged league allow our Maple Leafs to draft Auston Matthews, an American?
You really believe the Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks in 2011 because that game seven was rigged? Guess Canuck fans did the right thing by rioting, eh.
I want the Leafs to win as much as anyone, but acting like a petulant, spoiled, 10-year-old because you don’t get what you want makes our fan-base look stupid.

Pour yourself a glass of Scotch and consider:
1. 1/3rd of the NHL is Canadian. 1/3rd of the cup finalists since 1993 have not been Canadian. There are 2 cup finalists, 1/3rd of NHL is Canadian so that should be 6 finalists a decade and we have 3 decades of Bettwmn so we should have 18 Canadian cup finalists but have only had 5;
2, The NBA had a smell test problem when Patrick Ewing and the first over all pick was granted to the New York Knicks . There were allegations of a frozen envelope. The NBA used to have a big drum with envelopes in it and the commissioner would pick out an envelope for the first over all pick and the allegation was a frozen envelope was used to help NYC. The smell test problem lead to ping pong balls in a bingo machine, I think. And accountant supervision. The NHL had a tanking problem that Bettman fixed using the perfected NBA model, so it is difficult to fix the draft lottery.
3, The issue is not penalties called but penalties not called. I would not be at all shocked if there were more clear and egregious penalties that Boston got away with than Vancouver- would not shock me at all if Boston got away with a lot more than Vancouver. Remember- the issue is penalties not called
4, I want the Leafs to win too- and in my view, we need to consider the League being rigged- that does not make it impossible to win! It can be done, but you need to be the Soviet Red Army team: wave after waver after wave of unrelenting pressure and compete puck control. The key point is this- penalties will be called against the Leafs but not the American opponents.

 

[BodaciousBeefBazooka]

My cats breath smells like cat food

 

[AreBe]

My cats breath smells like cat food

And the Nation in the National Hockey League is America.

 

[tmlms13]

 

[goleafsgo1990]

Let me tell you what is not going to happen- Canada's 2 media empires that have tied themselves to the NHL will not go off the script found in the Gospel According to Hockey Night in Canada on NHL Infallibility . We get it every Saturday with that Mac Lean voice-over at the start of every HNIC broadcast and Moron Man eats it up.

And the hockey industry in Canada is eating at the buffet of false hope they set out for Moron Man who pays fat bucks for hockey tournaments knowing scouts will be there and that all this hockey stuff is a really great investment- the hockey industry must keep preaching that Gospel of NHL Infallibility going


As Moron Man, the chief Leafs Nation philosopher king points out, "Each and every one of those calls against the Leafs was a legitimate penalty. Lack of discipline. You cannot just take your hand off your stick and grab the other guy and throw him into the boards. Stupid Leafs took stupid penalties and deserved to lose," and in the next breath says, "Playoff hockey is called differently , sure Boston players took their hands off their stick and threw Leafs players into the boards, but that is just part of the game. That's why you need toughness in the playoffs. Leafs are too soft." Moron Man will never ever understated that toughness for the Leafs results in a legitimate penalty call.

Bettmans is trying to get that fat US tv deal. You try selling an Ottawa Winnipeg cup final on Madison Ave. Such a ratings crater it impacts other shows. Ivy League lawyer MBA accountant types now run the professional sports leauges, and not the Boy Scouts, and they have drinks with their old classmates who run the networks. The NHL must show Madison Ave. has nothing to fear- so the league set up a playoff system that takes out Canadian teams - try to group them together so they knock each other out. Zero chance of an all Canadian eastern conference semi-final. The NHL is still gate driven and the NHL knows that is a problem. So the NHL needs a fat US TV deal and the NHL knows that the threat of Canadian teams advancing deep in the playoffs are killing the TV deal, but the Canadian teams are required to pay the bills during the regular season. How do you fix it? Thank the Canadian teams during the regular season and then take them out in the playoffs.
San Antonio has won the NBA championship but that is the exception that proves the rule. One of the Yankees or the Red Sox are almost always in the playoffs, to the TV networks delight. Sure Green Bay has won the Super Bowl, but because of betting and other factors, TV ratings for football are off the charts. Note: It's not by mistake that NYC and LA have 2 teams each.

In my view the Leafs will be pushed around with impunity with a view of having them eliminated so that the NHL can get that problem solving US TV deal, and when the Leafs do any shoving, it will be called and Moron Man will correctly point out the legitimacy of the call.

Only way to fix it is to go all Soviet Red Army team wave after wave of outrageous talent and skill

Who’s moron man? Is that “ManLostInSpace” or “ManChildWithoutAPlan”? Forget, been a while since I blocked him.

 

[goleafsgo1990]

This reads like a google AI gone haywire.

They're learning, almost passing as humans.

 

[BrannigansLaw]

I’d stop watching until they fixed the problem. But the NHL isn’t fixed, Leafs just suck and you seem to have a hard time accepting it.