*Sigh*
I'm going to stupidly fall into the trap of responding because I can see through your supposed heartfelt post, in particular because you won't respond to any pertinent replies no matter what and are going to vanish into the ether, but here it goes...
For years, and you can look through thread after thread after thread here, it's been a rarity that we complain about officiating. The only time we really complain about "The Refs" is when you have the usual head shot nonsense a la Niskanen. It's almost foreign for us to complain about calls/non-calls on trips, hooks, interference, etc. It's almost always about post whistle nonsense and all out assaults on our best players when opposing teams are over matched.
"There were equal number of PP's" is the type of facile, ignorant argument that holds this league back and makes it a laughing stock even among its own pundits. Explain to me how, if you even have a basic understanding of the sport, one team can chase the other team around for about 65% of the game and somehow come out "even" in PP opportunities? Explain how, after the officials clearly made it known that Rugby rules were in effect and your team is being dominated, a chintzy interference penalty is suddenly called, leading to a situation that led to a 5 on 3?
Add to that a clear "series management" call where a sure goal is taken away, then the complaints become valid. Watch the NBC video, where Penguin loather Mike Milbury actually throws his hands up in disgust at the non calls on Crosby (and compare that to the Hainsey call) then come back and tell me about how we had equal opportunity to score on the PP.
Understand something: The randomness of NHL officiating benefits teams like yours, way, way more then it does teams like ours, so instead of complaining every time you feel slighted by "the refs" (which is always), take solace in the fact that the NHL purposely bends, and even breaks its own rules to give guys like Zack Smith a fighting chance to compete against a guy like Evgeni Malkin. I know you like to play the victim, but its always to your advantage when the rules stop being applied. If they were, you'd be obliterated by any speed/skill team.
One more thing. Look back on the post game threads in these playoffs, where even after we'd won, there was an open admission, even anger, that the team was playing horribly and that goaltending combined with luck played bigger roles than anything in Penguins wins outside of game 7 against the Caps. We weren't ashamed to admit that we were over matched against the Caps in large part due to missing personnel.
Yet somehow, admitting that you're simply taking advantage of your opportunities with a little luck and goaltending is somehow offensive to you, because you want to be heaped with praise for a "defensive system" that allowed almost 50 shots on goal, a lot of them being high quality.
Do you see the difference?
