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Above: Mike Murphy, according to Wikimedia Commons
The hockey world has been awash in Canucks conspiracy rumours over the last 24 hours, opining that Gary Bettman has it in for Canadian teams and has rigged the system in favor of the sun-belt, and that Mike Murphy is a Kings homer who is completely incapable of separating his personal feelings from his profession. This mostly erupted out of the terrible call made by video review on Daniel Sedin's "kicked-in" goal, as nicely summarized by The National Post and Puck Daddy.
The latest wrinkle is Gary Bettman's own apology (not in the actual "saying you're sorry for a completely brutal call" sense) for the controversy, in which he suggested that Mike Murphy's inability to defend the no-goal call was because he was tired. Perhaps, and this is just a suggestion, it would be a good idea to have a video review team on the west coast, where they might be still awake enough not to interpret twisting a toe as a "distinct kicking motion?" Just throwing that out there.
The Hockey News attempted a stab at satire and failed miserably.
As for us at Pass It To Bulis, we've made it pretty clear what we think about the disallowed goal and the questionable officiating. But a conspiracy? That's absurd, insulting, and all the other things Gary Bettman had to say.
There's no conspiracy: the officiating and decisions from the NHL front office have been universally terrible.
This has been happening for some time now and it's not necessarily the referees fault. More and more decisions are being taken out of their hands, from the automatic delay of game penalty for clearing the puck over the boards to the automatic double-minor for drawing blood with a high stick. Having a second official on the ice was meant to lower the number of missed calls, but it instead seems to have increased the number of phantom calls. Video review was designed to overturn an on-ice official's decision if there is conclusive evidence. Instead, Daniel Sedin's goal is disallowed on the flimsiest of reasons. The video review team is meant to be as unbiased as possible, yet Mike Murphy, a former Kings player and coach who has gone on the record as saying he would like the Kings to win the Stanley Cup, is the Vice-President of Hockey Operations and was in charge of the video review during the Kings-Canucks game.
This is not an issue with the NHL favoring one team over another; this is an issue of the rules being unclear and the NHL front office being incompetent at anything other than covering their own asses.
