Ron Raymond's Sports Betting Blog

Never like using this blog to have a bitch fest, as it comes across as being a poor sport or a sore loser and just for the record, I had the UNDER in the Boston vs. Montreal game last night and it pushed! So, I’m not writing this with vengeance in mind.

However, my issue is with the NHL referees who think they are bigger then the game when it comes to the NHL playoffs. We have refs who wave off goals like they are doing the 100-meter breast stroke; we have refs not jumping, but leaping on top of nets to call “no goals”. What the hell is going on with the zebras in the NHL come playoff time? They always say, you can tell when a ref does a good game when you don’t noticed them or at the end of the game you say: "oh by the way, who where those refs tonight?" I’m old school when it comes to the playoffs, I feel you should only call a penalty when it’s very obvious, or when a player doesn’t have the security of every skater on the ice. Plus, to call a penalty in the last 3 minutes of a playoff game should only happen when it takes away a clear and obvious scoring chance. If you ask me, put the whistle away in the pocket in the last 3 minutes and overtime.

In fact, when it comes to overtime, you shouldn’t be calling anything, as these are the playoffs and let the players decide who wins the game, they don’t need help from the refs. If you watched that Boston vs. Montreal game last night, the refs seemed to have gotten carried up with the frantic energy in the Bell Centre last night and called the most ridiculous penalty in the dying minutes of the game, which gave Montreal a 2-0 lead in the series.

I’m not going to write about every game, but for the “big picture” of the NHL playoffs, please let the players play hockey, keep the stupid players off the ice and let’s have some fire wagon hockey!

Hockey Tip for Sunday Night: When the Calgary Flames scored 0 goals for in their last game, they are 5-0 SU in their next games the last 3 years! Take Calgary tonight +105!