NHL referee's = teh suck

In the crease, no goal:



Not in the crease, goal:



Wait, what?

From the Detroit News:

His explanation, according to Wings captain Nick Lidstrom, was that while Holmstrom's skates weren't in the blue-painted crease, his hindquarters had broken the plane of the crease and interfered with Turco, who insisted afterward that he "couldn't move freely to make that save on the shot."

Replays clearly showed otherwise, however.

"He wasn't in the blue, his (butt) wasn't near the cylinder, he didn't touch the goalie," said Wings general manager Ken Holland, who hadn't yet spoken to series supervisor Mike Murphy, the NHL's senior vice president of hockey operations.

"What do you want me to say? The guy's not in the paint?" Babcock said. "The guy's out of the paint. That's a reputation call totally. It's disappointing. Sometimes a guy gets tripped and you miss it. Some things go wrong and you miss it. Just don't make stuff up, that's all."

Just don't make stuff up. if you don't see it, don't call. Missed calls are a part of the game. Taking points off the board based on things that didn't happen, and thus could not possibly have been seen, based solely on a guy's reputation is inexcusable and warrants punishment.

That said, the loss I think actually helps the Wings. They no longer have the franchise record winning streak hanging over them, they no longer have consecutive sweeps heading into the Finals hanging over them, and they can concentrate on teh issue at hand: one more win against Dallas, and then the four for the Cup.

Just go beat down the Stars in game 5, get ready for Pittsburgh, and bring Stanley home.