Wherein I Rant: "And Tonight's First Star, from Your Dallas Stars, Kerry Fraser!"

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Yeah, it's politically incorrect to call out the officials when you lose, and normally I wouldn't.

Photo: MIKE FUENTES - AP (from The News & Observer Online)

'Cause normally they do a great (okay good) job and if they blow one you gotta overcome, right? But when this (see photo - click to embiggen) isn't a penalty, something's wrong. Don't get me wrong, I like a good open ice hit as much as anybody. But when you come from half a rink away and leave your feet to go stick-first into a guy's head, there's got to be consequences. In this case, there were consequences, just not to Ott and the Stars. It wouldn't piss me off quite as much if they hadn't whistled Carolina's Tom Kostopoulos for retaliating in Dwyer's (the "target" of Ott's cheap shot) defense which led to Jamie Benn's goal on the ensuing power play. But they did and I am. Not that the Canes didn't take their share of (monumentally) BAD penalties later in the game. But this is the guys in stripes deciding the outcome. Literally. Because there was a straight line from a blown call to the game-winning goal. (And photographic evidence to back that statement up.) And even Kerry "Ted Koppel Award" Fraser will tell ya that shouldn't happen.

As for Ray Whitney's disallowed goal, all I can say is I didn't see "incontrovertible video evidence" that the call on the ice (goal) should be reversed. But I only saw one angle of the replay since there was no local TV (thanks very much Fox Sports Carolinas!) so I will grudgingly concede that one (even though it appeared in the highlight I saw that the puck changed direction from hitting Whitney's stick blade).

For the record, the referees in the NHL are generally pretty good, and the guys in the replay booth are usually pretty good at pointing out just how often the on-ice officials are right. Which is a lot more often than they're wrong. But in this case? Fraser, O'Rourke, et. al., you kicked it. Badly. And multiple times.

Okay. I feel better now. A little.

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