Whiners, dives, and knives-ins...

With uneven officiating, players continuing attempts to draw calls, and fans on social media going for each others throats - emotions are running pretty hot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

A Colorado fan’s twitter account shows severe disdain for Dallas’ Jamie Benn.

OH MY GOD JAMIE BENN’S DESTROYING THE INTEGRITY OF THE GAME!!! DID YOU SEE HOW CALE MAKAR FLOPPED ON THAT MARCHMENT PLAY? HOW DO YOU LET ROOPE HINTZ CROSS CHECK NATHAN MACKINNON?? BUT DID YOU SEE WHAT LANDESKOG DID JUST BEFORE???

Y’all are massively into it for sure - if not predictably so…

Yes - as we touched on last week - I know - I know - our guys don’t dive, take bad penalties, or attempt to injure anyone - and their guys practice diving, are careless as hell, and are the kind of people looking to injure our guys.

Our fans are great - their fans whine and don’t know the game.

Look at how dumb they are - and look at how smart we are.

See how this works?

I’ve become rather reflective and philosophical these days, so let me tell you what I know for sure after 30 years in the Show and watchin sports my whole life. If a penalty is called, and they open the door, and someone sits down - it’s a penalty. If they don’t see it, or call it, or it isn’t called on review, it’s not a penalty.

It’s good to remember these things. These things are important.

Through 6 games of this series - Power Plays are 19-19… this is why I can’t get too emotional or focused on the who’s diving and when and what calls are right and missed.

I’ll tell you something else.

In a best-of-seven series - it all works itself out. You did what you needed to do or you didn’t - you got a bounce or two when you had to have it - and you stayed healthy enough to push the other team out and advance or they did that to you.

You wanna horse around with the last 3 weeks of the regular season, potentially putting you in a spot where your game isn’t quite tight enough so you get beat 5-1, and piss away a shot at starting the series ahead? Then may I suggest you not point so firmly at a missed call in the second period of a future game in the series.

I know fans hate officiating these days - and blame officiating, reviews, and the entire process for everything from their teams losing games or series, to thinking it’s a driving force for winning in a team’s Super Bowl defense - but, almost universally speaking, you’re looking for a call to save you - or point too hard at one that costs you - you’re likely missing the bigger picture and the reasons why it did or didn’t go your way.

But I do think there’s something to all these missed and crazy calls in all sports these days that has nothing to do with conspiracies.

The athletes are so big, so fast, and the game is moving at speeds that would have baffled officials just a generation ago. It’s hard to keep up. And there’s other reasons too, that make us all, more times than we’d like, get up and hulk across the room screaming about a call.

There are more than a few reasons, beyond looking for someone to blame if our team loses, that officials are taking heat in all sports these days.

Andy Van Hellemond, was the first referee to wear a helmet - he was inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame in 1999