I've seen the league do this to us before. We build a tougher roster, then they start calling everything. That Torts yr, was the most blatant reff-cheating & rigging that I've ever witnessed in the game. Just disgraceful. Weren't they giving us SEVEN MINUTE 2 man-disadvantages???
Around Dec/Jan 2014, we'd assembled some nice size/grit in our depth: Lain, Arch, Sestito, Alberts. Look what happened soon afterwards. Then after our toughness was injured/rendered toothless, Hanzal ran around taking out all our centers. Wouldn't surprise me if the league allowed him a sherwood with F***ing rebar inside! No wonder Torts soon lost it. Even the wh*re-media was getting digs in, whining about Sestito, when I'd never heard them ever complain about any enforcer playing in the 'privileged' US markets.
& if we had a soft team..guess what? Whistles get tossed. Opponents realizing this, start to run our guys over. It's bloody dangerous, & injuries can easily result. Plays like Kadri on Daniel, if you lack a nuclear-deterent.
Even DPS sends mixed-messages with unfathomably inconsistent rulings. I won't go down THIS jungle path..too long, but certainly part of this fiasco.
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How do you beat 2 rulebooks?
I'd made a thread coupla' yrs back(Lacking Team-Toughness) that took off to 30,40 pages, where we all mostly agreed we needed more. So of course I'm really glad JB addressed this deficiency. But I'll add, I think our tough guys need to be INSANEly-disciplined in how they play. The goalposts will likely sway like branches in a typhoon.
Keep an eye on this inconsistency, folks. The first game is an ominous indicator.