Are the Playoffs Rigged? (Put on Your Tinfoil Hat, We're Going In...)

[TOMapleLaughs]

All I found was a bunch of dolts on internet forums presenting baseless claims and theories with nothing to back themselves up, much like...

No they brought up evidence and testimony that you've chosen to ignore.

[Kumquats]

If it was all rigged you would think they would arrange at least one Cup win north of the border just to shut up the conspiracy theorists.

They are trying to sell tickets South of the border. Nobody in the USA wins if a Canadain team wins the cup.

[Ronalds.Kenins41]

They are trying to sell tickets South of the border. Nobody in the USA wins if a Canadain team wins the cup.

What about if Toronto wins the cup or goes to the finals?

I disagree.

[La Mauviette75]

It wasn't just the Nucks. How about how in game 7 between Boston and Tampa suddenly, the refs stop calling penalties against the Bruins who were getting killed by Tampa's PP? Boston's owner is president of the NHL Board...Campbell's son played for the Bruins (and he had been accused of manipulating refs in this regard before). The suspension on Rome in 2011 was a travesty. A hit that until that point was never even a penalty and suddenly justifies a suspension for the balance of the playoffs? Right!

I don't think he league is necessarily "fixed" but I do believe various aspects of the game are manipulated to the advantage of certain teams to achieve the outcome the league desires.

did you even watch the boston tampa game? it was a completely clean game. I wouldn't say they were getting killed by the Tampa PP. they had a bad game 6 in Tampa, but it was still only 5 PPGs in that whole series.

campbell stepped down for the finals. What is Greg Campbell supposed to do? not play hockey? anywhere he goes people are going to whine about his dad. (who freaked out once at a referee omg!)

The Rome hit is a penalty every day of the week and twice on Sunday. The 4 game suspension is certainly debatable but seriously Rome is one the worse defensemen in the league. The day before it happened everyone was calling for him to be sat and for Ballard to play instead.

Hey here's a question for you, if the league was so anti-canucks in that series, why didn't they suspend burrows for the obvious bite on bergeron? they easily could have suspended him for a least a game or two. instead he scored two goals in game 2.

[Ronalds.Kenins41]

did you even watch the boston tampa game? it was a completely clean game. I wouldn't say they were getting killed by the Tampa PP. they had a bad game 6 in Tampa, but it was still only 5 PPGs in that whole series.

campbell stepped down for the finals. What is Greg Campbell supposed to do? not play hockey? anywhere he goes people are going to whine about his dad. (who freaked out once at a referee omg!)

The Rome hit is a penalty every day of the week and twice on Sunday. The 4 game suspension is certainly debatable but seriously Rome is one the worse defensemen in the league. The day before it happened everyone was calling for him to be sat and for Ballard to play instead.

Hey here's a question for you, if the league was so anti-canucks in that series, why didn't they suspend burrows for the obvious bite on bergeron? they easily could have suspended him for a least a game or two. instead he scored two goals in game 2.

Burrows after game 2: "My dad told me to score a goal to shut up all the talk about the bite"

So perfect that he is the one to score the Game winning goal after the whole incident.

[La Mauviette75]

Burrows after game 2: "My dad told me to score a goal to shut up all the talk about the bite"

So perfect that he is the one to score the Game winning goal after the whole incident.

it was certainly exciting, but you can probably see how it frustrated bruins fans, particularly since it felt the series was pretty much over. i love watching burrows play when he's fired up. you can almost feel it through the TV. bergeron got the last laugh though, stanley cup finals winning goal hah

[Ronalds.Kenins41]

it was certainly exciting, but you can probably see how it frustrated bruins fans, particularly since it felt the series was pretty much over. i love watching burrows play when he's fired up. you can almost feel it through the TV. bergeron got the last laugh though, stanley cup finals winning goal hah

Makes for a great series.

I love watching Krecji, Marchand and Bergeron skate at full speed they are exciting players to watch if you put the antics aside.

[ForsbergTheGreat]

Yep looks like it's staged to me

[tebeaun]

I can't agree that they are rigged, but I definitely think that they are managed. The officiating is predictable because it is so inconsistent. By that I mean when they are managing a game or series it becomes pretty evident based on calls, non-calls and the timing of either.

The league wants and somewhat needs parity. Equal opportunity for success in each market place would be ideal. It makes for a better product which is easier to market making it more profitable. It all comes back to money and market share.

The NHL is a business run by business people. So conspiracy? I don't think so. Managed? Most definitely in my opinion.

[TOMapleLaughs]

Yep looks like it's staged to me

Know the difference between rigged and staged?

[ForsbergTheGreat]

Know the difference between rigged and staged?

I don't think you do

Rigged would mean giving a team better odds to winning a game (ie, powerplays/non calls, suspending better players, and

Staged would mean a pre-determined winner before the game even started, (ie other teams purposely "laying" down, purposely scoring vs non scoring to get a playoff series to more exciting moments game 7/OT, players on opposing team purposely cheating)

Wishful thinking? Or a pre-determined guarantee? Given all that 'magically happened' for them since then, yeah...

Didn't record that, but I could tell after one shift in the game the Canucks were going to lie down.

Not every game is fixed, but towards the end of the season they definitely are. To determine seeds.

lately the NHL has figured out how to ensure outcomes

[viking mama]

did you even watch the boston tampa game? it was a completely clean game. I wouldn't say they were getting killed by the Tampa PP. they had a bad game 6 in Tampa, but it was still only 5 PPGs in that whole series.

campbell stepped down for the finals. What is Greg Campbell supposed to do? not play hockey? anywhere he goes people are going to whine about his dad. (who freaked out once at a referee omg!)

The Rome hit is a penalty every day of the week and twice on Sunday. The 4 game suspension is certainly debatable but seriously Rome is one the worse defensemen in the league. The day before it happened everyone was calling for him to be sat and for Ballard to play instead.

Hey here's a question for you, if the league was so anti-canucks in that series, why didn't they suspend burrows for the obvious bite on bergeron? they easily could have suspended him for a least a game or two. instead he scored two goals in game 2.

.

Okay - let's work this thru.

Not only Game 7 of the BOS vs TB series.... had issues. Game 7 of the 'Nucks vs BOS series was not the most controversial either. Both series were managed by deploying referees beholding to the Chairman & his co-horts for advancement opportunities. Limiting PP-ops from the speedier & uber-skilled forwards in both TB & VAN...strongly benefitted the Chairman's team...& this was by design. Permissable violence with impunity - gave the edge to teams where the majority of the starters were left standing. It 's not about the best hockey players in the world...when thuggery is permissable & takes the spotlight away from the stars of the game. The conspiracy is how the league buzzed about reform & removing clutching, holding, hits from behind & deliberate head-shots or brawling...yet - in the play-offs...officiating standards altered & were so abysmal ... as to favor or please whom, I wonder?

Traditionalists are retro. They require on-ice violence to provide the extra intensity & drama that they hope will over-shadow & grab some limelight away from the other professional sports teams competing within their shared markets. The NHLOA could readily call games by the book...if not for those predictable missives - right before the play-offs...directing 'em to put more emphasis on considering things like - "diving" for instance. Wow! How convenient was that.... to ask every official to doubt what they see?! The only solution - therefore....is to call NOTHING! And - which official would dare go against the directives from the firmly entrenched Board Chairman & his voting-block brothers ...especially if they hoped for promotion to any league head office job...post career? The Chairman directs his henchman Bettman to award these plum postings...& we all read what happened to that 1 referee - who could not quite comply with Mr. Campbell's personal view-point on things.

Funny - NOT...how controversial officiating was in the BOS vs VAN series. Campbell-gate revealed the clear potential for manipulations.... as this particular hockey-dad operated in a clear conflict of interest for well over a year & a half of incidents involving more than just this 1 ex-NHL referee! That ex-ref clearly felt he was dismissed because he wouldn't cow-tow to the far-reaching wishes of a king-pin... or enact inappropriate on-ice favoritism or retributions - especially those that a particular 2nd in command wanted. Read the Campbell-gate transcripts! Brian Burke was clearly no different. Some of the most vindictive men in hockey - have held that particular post over the years...and now the appointed & well-seeded DPS with its' 0-6 allegiances...acts with similar tendancies.

Burkie's "consulting" fees & allegiances to TOR , ANA, SJ & now CAL... buys 'em ALL immunity...along with some clout with today's DPS. After-all...Burkie has his son on the DPS - even tho' he's got sub-par qualifications (former PHI scout & a protest organizer). Nothin' like ensuring good ol' nepotism continues in the NHL...eh? We can also thank Burkie for councilling Mike Murphy on that huge Rome suspension. (Losing a forward - no matter how valuable...aint quite as costly as losing 2 Top-6 D-men....in the same game....let alone for an entire play-off series) Rome gave the Canucks D the size & grit..that Ballard & subsequently Tanev....could NOT. Border-line call or not...Burke contrived to set a very harsh new standard - THEN...at that moment...during a SC-Final. Punish the injury-sustained...rather than the severity of the deed! Wow!

What would a gushing neck wound from an errant skate set a player back? Nothin' ....or a 1/2 season-long suspension? What about a broken back? Oh - we know the answer to this one...if its' a 'Nuck (Raymond) pitch-forked by an 0-6 player....NOTHIN' . But if the Nuck swats a player with his gloved-hand up the side of the helmet... for refusing to respond or turn around to face the music - as was expected of every 'Nuck in the 2011 Final...THEN it's out of the play-offs before they begin.....or the equivalent to the 1/2 season-long suspension.

The direct-concusser of Horton.... was the ice surface. Horton fell awkwardly with a loose helmet after being stood-up in full flight....the impact of Rome's shoulder was indirectly responsible for his injury. Well played tho' - Burkie! And the favors just keep rollin' on in now - don't they? More than adequate compensation - for Burke's steadfast loyalty to the king-pins & their desperate SC aspirations....wouldn't ya say?

Regarding the "bite".. what would any player or citizen do - if pinned-up by the boards with officials holding back your arms... & some 'ornery opponent willfully shoving a heavily gloved-mitt into one's mouth? Words would be impossible & ineffective....let alone breathing with any ease....so ya bite - right?! The player fish-hooking another player's mouth & dental work....should be the one getting the unsportsmanlike penalty...& NO sympathy. BUT the perk of being upon the Chairman's team....is the green-light to be a serial bully, over-reacter & drama-queen! It's all part of a carefully concocted deflection-technique....part of their regular schtick is to create disturbances for "selected" officials to conveniently misinterpret.

Six-year olds react with more dignity to being bitten on the school yard...& that's without the protection of heavy-leather gloves! Bergeron's whining was a complete embarassment & NOT at all justified. It was shocking to me... that it could have been seen otherwise. And - you think diving is playing-things-up for a penalty? Pot meet kettle. I'd have done the same as Burr...rather than puke. So would you. He & his teammates should have said their piece about that - too. But the entire team happened to be muzzled by their GM - due to all of the post-Auger-gate back-lash from the NHLOA.....remember? The whiners & serial over-reacters ....mainly wore black & gold during that series!. The Canucks who spoke to the officials on-ice wore... a C & some A's. It's called "asking for rule-clarification"...& it's a part of their job description.

Auger's buds & union leaders worked the series as designed. Perennial Bruins fan-boy Cherry & the eastern-media were permitted to run-wild-at-the-mouth & unchecked...so that not-many would notice the truth - thru all of the propaganda worked-up to perfection. Dirtiest team? What?! Good grief! Who still believes this ridiculous catch-phrase now - eh? Ron Maclean's on-air apologies to the Canucks organization & hockey-fans across the nation once new contracts were obtained the following season...were extremely hollow. Too little - too late.

So - to most of your points I say.... wrong, wrong & wrong. So wrong - you're the mayor of Wrong-ville!

[La Mauviette75]

.

Okay - let's work this thru.

yeah, we're still going to disagree.

your whole first paragraph is all just opinion disguised as facts. e.g., "referees beholding to the Chairman & his co-horts for advancement opportunities". you don't know the refs, you don't know the chairman, you have no idea what their relationship is, you're angry about the result, tough cookies. sometimes teams lose cause they get outplayed, out skilled or outmuscled. physicality is a skill that's a part of the game.

if you're not happy about refs putting their whistles away in the playoffs, then welcome to the world. this isn't an NHL thing. watch refeering in the world cup, in the NCAA frozen four, in the superbowl, you name it: no one wants to see the big game decided by a ticky-tacky call. maybe it's wrong, maybe it's right, but it has nothing to do with the commissioner.

Hockey is a violent, physical sport, always has been. things get heated, especially in the playoffs, and if you want to call penalties on every after the whistle scrum, then that's not the league changing the rules on you, it's you who wants to change the way things have always been.

Sorry they put an emphasis on diving, but it was a big problem. they also put an emphasis on head shots, elbows, blind side hits....

Believe it or not the officiating in the BOS v Van series was not all that controversial for anyone outside of vancouver or boston. (maybe it has to do with the big evil eastern biased media convincing all those neutral fans that vancouver is the spawn of the devil /s)

Campbell was no longer in charge during the finals. the whole brian burke thing is basically irrelevant. what exactly are the proper qualifications for a position on the DPs? Patrick is a lawyer and has a rather extensive knowledge of hockey. his work with 'you can play' is hardly protest organizing. it's a managerial position within an important activist group. there is no degree in "player safety" and i don't think his appointment is really that egregious.

brian burke didn't invent suspending based on injuries. i don't like that standard either, but it's been like that for a long time. maybe now it's a little clearer since they actually make videos and vocalize the explanations behind the suspensions, but injury has clearly always been a factor.

losing your top winger is a lot worse than losing your bottom D, sorry. (maybe the canucks need to work on their depth?). Sorry also about the hamhuis injury but that was kind of his own doing. if you're going to go low on a guy as big lucic, you're going to have a bad time.

regarding the bite, you're out of your mind. watch the video again. facewashes happen literally in every game, rarely does someone bite anyone (and when it happens, they get suspended). all you have to do is move your head, not chomp down like an animal. not only that, the worst part is burrows actually moves his head to line up with bergeron's fingers, grabs arm and holds it in his mouth. seriously just watch it again.

please tell me that at 2 seconds in the video below burrows doesn't move toward bergeron's hand, grab his arm, and chomp down, when he easily could have just kept his head back. (or you know he could have kept his mouth shut. that nosey thing with two holes in it is pretty good for breathing i hear)

that's easily suspendable. if there was a big conspiracy against the canucks, they totally would have suspended burrows for a game or two.

anyway, whatever, i'm not going to go back in forth. you clearly have the CDC Persecution Complex™. The media, the league, the refs are all against you.

[Smashian Kassian]

There's preferential treatment for some teams, it sure looks like it to me. Teams whose success would be beneficial to the league sure seem to end up having an inordinate amount of success. Teams whose success does not matter one way or another to the league always seem to be fighting against the current. There's something of a favourite sons/abused stepchildren dichotomy to the way the NHL treats its franchises, and it comes down to where there are profits to be realized. Remember Bettman comes from the NBA background, and the NBA was notorious for boosting the favoured sons, remember when Sacramento almost upset the Lakers until the league intervened? That's the environment Bettman comes from. It's not that the outcomes are predetermined, but when you see certain matchups you know ahead of time that one team is gonna have to go above and beyond in order to overcome those in-built biases. It's not so much "the fix is in" sort of business, it's more swimming with the current or against it, that's the metaphor I'd use.

I still like the other poster's 'swimming with or against the current' analogy. It just seems so accurate and sensible, moreso during playoff hockey that is anyways.

The league does seemingly favor certain teams and certain matchups. From the looks of it, if the NHL likes both teams in a playoff series then they'll have a fairly level playing field. If they like one team better than the other, then the ice will be tilted in favor of their preferred team. If 2 canadian teams meet up, it also seems pretty much fair and square. There isn't necessarily any true "fix", but too often there seems to be a slant.

Take 2011 for example. The Canucks built a virtually insurmountable 3-0 series lead against Chicago and the series came down to a game 7 OT. Gillis publicly complained about the discrepancy in powerplays and things straightened out. We were still 1 goal away from losing but it turned what could've been a dull short series into an epic 7 game near-catastrophe.

Another poster mentioned the SCF and how the Canucks got more powerplays in that series. This is a fact, however a great deal of those powerplays came in the games we lost which were all blowouts. We got lots of powerplays when the games were out of reach.

The Canucks didn't do themselves any favors in these two series but the league clearly wasn't on their side either.

I agree with these 2.

I don't buy the full blown conspiracy theories but I do think the league favors certain franchises.

[TOMapleLaughs]

No, Burrows should/could not have been suspended for that bite.

Meanwhile, Horton was concussed by Downie in the series prior and was a non-factor in the finals. The Bruins lost nothing when they lost him to that 'staged' hit by Rome.

This is because the outcome of the series was 'rigged.'

[Batmania]

No, Burrows should/could not have been suspended for that bite.

Meanwhile, Horton was concussed by Downie in the series prior and was a non-factor in the finals. The Bruins lost nothing when they lost him to that 'staged' hit by Rome.

This is because the outcome of the series was 'rigged.'

Why is that?

[TOMapleLaughs]

Because it was not worthy of suspension. Duh.

[Batmania]

Oh ok. Well that's one opinion. Really though he could have been suspended for biting another player. In fact Savard was suspended for biting Darcy Tucker. As was Ruutu for biting Andrew Peters.

[BanTSN]

Pretty obvious the series was swung Boston's way. Esp. the media's take on it. 'OMG THE CANUCKS ARE WORTHY OF SOOOO MUUUUCH HAAAATE!!!'

Um, what?

I guess the east forgot how the Bruins got away with bloody murder against their teams all season long. Like how Chara rammed Patchy's head into a stantion and got off scott free. That doesn't happen unless instruction from above is given.

The Burrows bite, as everything the Canucks did, was overblown. Playoffs = No way in hell a suspension. However, the Rome hit got an unprecendented 4 games? wtf is that?

Add in Burke's and Campbell's involvement and you have got yourselves some bias, if not an outright fixing. And Milbury, TSN, CBC and the rest of those idiots out east are feeding the country a whole pile of bs to add to those bs perception.

Thank God we have Torts now to shut that crap right the f down. Not to mention the diving and cheap crap we do has all but stopped, save Kassian's stick incident.

[BanTSN]

I think too much time has passed and now everyone here forgets how badly we were screwed in that series. Not to mention the recent Hawks series' we lost.

Oh... My God...

Horrible, horrible screwjobs.