After last night's rather poorly officiated NBA Finals game, we're once again hearing the yearly ref conspiracy theory rumors again. But generally speaking, those fixed game accusations - in any sport - come from fans of the team that got hosed and bloggers in their mothers' basements. You don't hear it from someone totally unbiased and in the mainstream media.But no longer.
One brave Canadian sports writer is still hammering away about the NHL Finals, and he believes the fix was in to extend the series so the Pens could stick around longer.
Tony Gallagher, who had his article published in the Vancouver Province and National Post, didn't mince his words.
While nobody really wanted to say so, how could you have possibly watched the calls in that series and not had the feeling that somehow, consciously or more likely unconsciously, there was a slant toward favouring the Pittsburgh Penguins?Gallagher goes on to point out numerous occasions in which the Red Wings got completely hosed on calls, but gives special attention to Pavel Datsyuk getting tripped with 18 seconds left in Game 6 with no call. Gallagher says, rather hilariously, "he was hauled down with an abundantly obvious stick foul so blatant that Helen Keller would have been forced to raise her arm."
Gallagher believes that the NHL wanted to extend the series because it was pulling in such great ratings. If that is indeed true, it's hard to blame the NHL for doing that. There's no question hockey hasn't been doing well these last few years, so any opportunity they have to push the sport in the American market is something they should take advantage of.
And here's the thing, I actually wouldn't doubt Gallagher's claims either. I've long been skeptical of the motives of major sports leagues in terms of how they handle key playoffs match ups. After all, sports are a business. It's better to have Lakers/Celtics than Pistons/Spurs, and it's better to have Crosby and Malkin stick around to battle the mighty Red Wings than get blanked 4-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Plus we've seen what happened with Tim Donaghy, and no one can bring up a reffing conspiracy theory post without the 2002 Lakers/Kings Western Conference Finals Game 6, where LA shot an unreal 27 4th quarter free throws to squeeze out a win.
So I'll go along Gallagher. The Red Wings clearly got hosed numerous times in that series. But in the long run, if that the Stanley Cup Final helped hockey begin to bring itself back to big time popularity, I'd say it was worth it.
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