So, the bulk of this update is going to cover the game against Guildford. Yes, we lost, and yes, it was a silly 5 minute spell in the 2nd period which lost it for us. For the first time this season we got caught napping, and were made to pay the price. And yes, it was shit to be on the wrong end of the scoreline. C'est la vie.
Mind you, for most of the rest of the game we looked pretty comfortable, so I ain't gonna worry my pretty self just yet.
No, for my money the main talking points were the officiating and Guildfords nettie, Hala.
So, the officiating... Is it too much to ask for some fucking consistency from the men (and women) in the stripey jerseys? On Sunday it was pretty apparent that Boardman just wasn't quite up to reffing a game as important as 1st vs 2nd in the league. He either made no calls at all for some pretty obvious infringements, or made calls which seemingly made no sense, then applied a different criteria to a similar incident seconds (or minutes) later. Example: Pasha got himself a 10 minute abuse of official misconduct for swearing at the ref when a Guildford forward pushed our nets off deliberatley. He appeared to say very few words, and wa sent to the bin before anyone knew what was going on. According to one fan who lip reads, Pasha quite literally said 1 'abusive' word (I'm assuming something along the lines of fuck, shit, bastard, or the c-bomb... cunt. They didn't specify) which was enough. Minutes later, as Guildford rather excessively lobbied for our 3rd goal to be disallowed (more on this later), Longdstaff and Hala certainly said much more to Boardman, which drew no call whatsoever. WHich, in my book is a lack of consistency. If you penalise 1 team for abusive language, you have to penalise the other team when they use it too. Thank fuck I don't paly. I'd be getting misconducts every fucking game, motherfuckers.
And now onto Hala. On Sunday night he displayed some quite frankly disgusting unsportsmanlike behaviour. Firstly he appeared to take Wallaces skates out from under him (or thats what it looked like from my vantage point) as he was try to shoot (which could have been nasty, but wasn't). Then he kicked the goals off the moorings on our 3rd goal, very obviously on purpose, which thankfully Boardman did see, and gave the gaol anyways, giving us fans a couple of minutes to watch Guildford almost spontaneously combust with rage. During this Hala also threw his stick, which he should have recieved a penalty for. It was a pointless tantrum in the end, and only served to make him look like an idiot. Following that he then tried to fake an injury in a most bizarre manner.
Hala threw his blocker into the air (I swear it went 6 fucking feet straight up), then dropped to the ice like Nani in the penalty box, clutching his wrist in agony. Within seconds the fine display of the thespian arts ended as he realised that the ref was stood next to him and wasn't giving jack shit for his hsitrionics. Hala then got up, popped hsi blocker back on, and set for the face off as if he had just taken a moment to have a sip of water. Again, no call against him either, which pissed me and quite a few others off immensely.
The sad thing is, thse actions late in the game spolt what was for me a great dislpay of netminding from Guildford. He didn't need to do it, and was acting like an idiot frankly.
Hmm, not as sweary as I thought I'd be this time. Methinks I need more beer... now where's that fucking bottle opener....
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