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Detroit benefits from questionable call, for once

I am so tired of the NHL doing it’s best to ensure the Detroit Red Wings keep winning. It’s almost a certainty at this point that Gary Bettman and the NHL officials are doing everything in their power to keep the winningest NHL franchise in the past 20 years on top, keeping every other team down along the way. Right?

Wait, that’s not it is it? It’s the other way around, right? “The NHL is holding the Red Wings back; it’s a conspiracy that starts at the very top.”

I don’t know about any sort of conspiracy and frankly I don’t understand why the NHL would even consider trying to hold back such an insanely well-run and successful sports franchise. I do believe the Red Wings have been the bearers of some bad luck call recently, but when you have Tomas Holmstrom on your team there’s bound to be some controversy surrounding plays that happen around the crease.

Yesterday, the Red Wings were actually the benificiaries of questionable call that disallowed a goal, when Patrick Kane appeared to have scored on the power play to put the Blackhawks up 3-0. Yet the goal was called back, when it was ruled that Dustin Byfuglien had interfered with Jimmy Howard. The biggest tell to me on the play was the fact that Howard didn’t even react to the “interference”, which is usually automatic when a goaltender feels he was wronged and then a goal was scored.

“You look back on that and it was a turning point,” coach Mike Babcock said. “I talked (to the officials), because they bumped our goalie and got the goal called back and no penalty. We bump their goalie (Tomas Holmstrom) and we get a penalty. I guess we have to clarify that first.”

It was certainly a turning point in the game, as the Red Wings were able to overcome the 2-0 deficit, score five second period goals on route to a thrilling 5-4 win. The good news is that the Chicago players aren’t using that one play as an excuse.

“Against a team like Detroit, we put it on cruise and we paid for it really quickly,” forward Kris Versteeg said. “I don’t think we played our game anymore (in the second). It was almost like we started to let up. We needed to play the whole game like we played the first (period).”