Thursday, February 19, 2009

Ref-hawks Shutout Panthers


You may have noticed I titled this entry "Ref-hawks" shutout the Panthers. This is because the zebras were out in full force tonight.

Of all the Panthers games I have watched this season, this was the worstly officiated game I have seen (and believe me, I see plenty). The Panthers did not get their first powerplay until halfway through the 2nd period while the refs let several calls slide for the Blackhawks. Seriously, if the refs are going to call a close game, call it for both sides. If you're going to let calls slide, let them slide for both teams. I don't usually complain about the refs, but there was some serious bias against the Cats tonight.

The few powerplays that the Cats did get, they were either negated by a Panthers penalty shortly afterward or pretty much nonexistant because the Panthers did not capitalize on any of them. However, when the Cats weren't busy killing off penalties, they did not manage to get many shots on Huet- particularly in the 3rd period. Huet made some sensational saves against Booth, Zednik and Horton. For some reason the Panthers can't ever really score much on Huet. The way he played tonight reminded me of that 5-1 loss to Montreal in December of last season at the BAC when he was in net. He frustrated the hell out of the Panthers and ME! I was cursing at my TV screen yelling "f*cking Huet! F*ck you!!" pretty much every time he robbed one of our players of a sure goal. Horton had practically an empty net and he couldn't get one by him. Ugh... this game pretty much sucked all around.

Meanwhile, Carolina gained some ground by stomping the Islanders tonight. At least Buffalo and Montreal lost.

Well, the Panthers better take what they learned tonight and put it behind them quick because the Bruins are in town Saturday night. I'll be at that game and I hope I'm not disappointed!

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