Canucks players speak about NHL ‘conspiracy’

Like I said yesterday, this conspiracy talk in the NHL isn’t going away anytime soon, and if the Canucks lose this first round series it will just keep heating up. I will say this, and it’s something that one of my good friends brought up yesterday, that if the NHL is conspiring against the Canucks then they have a mess of conspiracies to try and keep sorted out all at the same time:

The NHL’s conspiracy against Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals.

The NHL’s conspiracy against the Detroit Red Wings (this one makes no sense to me at all).

The NHL’s conspiracy against Canadian teams, especially since Gary Bettman took over in 1994.

Now we have the NHL’s conspiracy against the Canucks, so that the Los Angeles Kings will advance and the NHL can get better TV ratings in the playoffs.

I don’t buy any of it. Is the NHL guilty of inconsistent officiating and inconsistent judgment on suspensions and supplementary punishment? Yes. Is the NHL guilty of trying to change to much of the game of hockey to appeal to broader audience?

Of course, the shootout and the trapezoid were horrible ideas. But conspiring so that certain teams advance in the playoffs for better numbers in the finals? How do you explain Carolina and Edmonton then? Ottawa and Anaheim?

What do the players say?

The conspiracy theorists will always be loud and when there are bad decisions that are made, those voices will ring out louder. What I want to know is what the players think, and thanks to Terry Jones of the Ottawa Sun, we have some thoughts. Jones does a great job of going through the various theories that run rampant regarding the Canucks, before getting to these words from some Canucks players on whether the NHL has it out for the team:

“No. Not at all,” said Burrows after the morning skate Wednesday. “I hope not. I don’t think so. They’ve got a tough job to do and those were not easy calls.

“Nobody is against us. Hopefully the calls will start to go our way,” he added.

“You earn your own breaks and we’re not earning our breaks right now,” said Daniel Sedin.

“I don’t think it’s like that at all,” said Roberto Luongo. “Whatever calls are made are out of our control. And I’m a big believe that you make your own breaks.”

These guys have it right. The NHL may make some bad decisions every now and then, but what the do not control is how these teams play. If you watch the games in this series, it’s become obvious how overmatched the Cancucks are at times. The Kings have more jump, better execution and are just killing the Canucks on the power play. Roberto Luongo is playing horribly, that must be the NHL’s doing.

As far as the ‘kicked’ goal by Sedin. This wasn’t Mike Murphy and the War Room making anything up. There is precedent for a goal that’s not exactly kicked in to be disallowed, and both involve Brenden Morrow.