Is the NHL fixed?

Many of my friends and co-workers have been tossing this idea around for a bit but i thought i would see if anybody here has any ideas on this. We have come to the conclusion that the NHL head office is putting influence onto the refferees in order to change the out come of the stanley cup. why is this in political conspiracies? because i believe they are trying to tip the favour towards the american teams in order to expand audiances down there and make more profit.
firstly the remaining four teams in the tournament (up until last night) did not make the playoffs at all the previous season played. this is good for the league as it could show that in the new NHL any team is able to win with a balanced playing field. Now i believe that this is actually good as all four teams more than deserve to be there through talent and hard work.
My main problem is the penaltys being called against the canadian teams through out the tournament and especially with edmonton. edmonton takes a 3-0 series lead over anahiem and all of a sudden they get penalties galore, the game that they won last night had six 5 on 3 powerplays for anaheim including the last two minutes of the game where they had a 6 on 3. it seemed that the league was trying to prolong the series so as to make more money or even allow anaheim to win. with the series in the east most likely headed to a seven game series, would it not make sense to them to get the west to be as long and drwn out as possible? combined with a lot of BS penalties against edmonton i think that the league is definitly meddling.
www.nhl.com...
if you look at the total short handed on the list (TS) you will see that 3 of the top four teams are canadian, including calgary who was out in the first round and edmonton with a whopping 114 times short handed

Brother, I could not agree more, as a matter of fact, last night the boys and I were discussing this very same thing. I live in edmonton and we have seen the very worst of this. It was very bad with Detroit and even causal fans could clearly see the bias against the Oilers, every game. It toned bown a bit with the Sharks but is was still quite bad and with the Ducks, it was just brutal. We played shorthanded sooo often because of the garbage calls, we actually got good at playing with the man downand started scoring short handed goals. I guess that one backfired on Betman.

Its just BS but Were taking it home this time.

[edit on 28-5-2006 by Census]

I'm from Edmonton, and i'll tell you one thing, aint no crap refs gonna bring us down !

Luxifero

there's no doubt in my mind that the oilers will bring the cup home, they by far deserve it the most.

If America wants to invade Canada, just wait for a Leafs/Canadian Cup match where the Leafs win on Montreal home ice 7th game quintuple overtime. Chaos! In 1/3 the nation! Yikes!

Victor K.

Lol...I have not got a clue about the goings on in the NHL, but I hope Edmonton with whatever big shiny cup they are playing for...it's always good to see the underdog win. Having said that, are you guys sure you ain't just a bit sore because a better team beat you?

On a related note however, I often wonder about the levels of corruption that go on in sport in the Western hemisphere. I sometimes think that we have this notion that our officials are the wholesome, fair-minded arbiters that we want them to be, whereas news stories often come out suggesting the contrary -

A 2006 World Cup Site

Italy are set to have just one referee at World Cup 2006, as Massimo De Santis will not be replaced following his withdrawal.

The ongoing investigation into alleged match fixing in Serie A has rocked Italian football.

The entire board of directors at Juventus resigned as well as Italian FA president Franco Carraro and his vice-president, the well-named Innocenzo Mazzini.

Daily Telegraph

A Bundesliga game has been mentioned for the first time in Germany's widening football match-fixing scandal, according to two newspaper reports.

Referee Jürgen Jansen was allegedly approached by a Croatian-controlled betting ring in November and asked to make sure the game between Kaiserslautern and Freiburg ended in the "right" result, it was reported in the respected Sueddeutsche Zeitung and mass-circulation Bild newspapers.

Jansen was allegedly approached by one of three Croatians who have been arrested on suspicion of fraud. The match, on Nov 27, ended in a 3-0 win for Kaiserslautern after two disputed goals.

And to be honest, these are very high profile cases. And this is just football (soccer). There are many stories pertaining to horse racing in particular of a similar nature. This is what happens when large sums of money are involved I guess.

Political conspiracy? Nah, it's a business move. You are right about the penalties called but it's not political. You're still going to get TV watchers in Canada no matter who is in the final. The States however would hardly watch Canadian teams though, as a rule. That's the nature of OUR game.

BTW, check this out:

www.sportztawk.com...

I discuss this issue here: www.belowtopsecret.com...

Alot of the penalty calls have been alittle iffy. However the two-many men call late last night and Pronger putting the puck over the boards are legit calls.

This does not take away from alot that you have said.

How about Koivu's high stick, no call. He may never play again.

Do I have to mention Calgary vs. Tampa Bay last year? Game 6 overtime, if you think real hard you will remember Calgary winning that game in OT. If they had of been doing their job anyways.

Is their a conspiracy, No. Simply because expansion, helping the US markets, etc is not enough to jeopardize the league. Integrity is alot in the NHL, they would not risk tampering with that.

Please read the thread above though, all of this is currently running on that thread.

Originally posted by Luxifero
I'm from Edmonton, and i'll tell you one thing, aint no crap refs gonna bring us down !

Luxifero

I'm from Edmonton, too, and even though I haven't followed hockey in at least ten years, I still hope they win. I doubt there's any kind of conspiracy here, but I think every sports fan thinks the refs are out to get whichever team they are cheering for.

no, i would not put it past the league to try fixing the games, at least in the early seasons of the "new" NHL. i am more than happy edmonton has been winning as i have been a fan my whole life (not one of those wagon jumpers) and yes a lot of those penalties are justified, but recall missed ones like the pick play against edmonton in the detroit series the numerous goaltending interference that get called that are clearly incidental contact when the obviously deliberate hits are not. i just would be sad to see our game get tarnished over profits. Bring back the Jets!!
football (soccer) has been in a bad state for years, especiallty with all of the BS diving that some teams employ *cough*brazil*cough*. the refereeing at all levels has been iffy an needs to be cleaned up. there is just so much money and pride involved in things like the world cup that it attracts the very worst in people wanting to make an easy buck.
remember the last world cup when the brazil player got hit in the thigh from a pass so he could perform a corner kick and went down holding his face. the opposing player got a red card. he was allowed to play after the replays showed the dive.

[edit on 28-5-2006 by darkside_ofthe_moon]

remember the last world cup when the brazil player got hit in the thigh from a pass so he could perform a corner kick and went down holding his face. the opposing player got a red card. he was allowed to play after the replays showed the dive

I saw that game. That was disgusting. The announcers said that they had never seen such a poor example of sportsmanship in their entire careers. It would be nice if people would just play the game, instead of pulling crap like this.

Sure the refs are biased.
I sed to attend quite a few Red Wing games and you could almost tell from the clls made which ref was on the ice.
I think they are not as impartial as they should be. At least one was very biased against Detroit, which was not good if the game was important.

I hope it's not true that the powers that be are stacking the deck against Edmonton. They had some great years awhile back, it'd be great if they won.
But, then, I'm not much of a political animal

FWIW, I think all sports have some degree of planned outcomes.

Is it fixed? not likely as fixed games are not fun to watch. There is no business advantage to fixing games as the fans would start to stray and loose confidence in the team. When fans stray the team spirit dies with it.

Refs and the NHL

First off there do exist inexperienced refs in the NHL and like football(soccer) refs they don't get paid much. So there are opportunities where a price can be put on a game, but nine times out of ten a particular ref passes up on an offer to fix a game.

Secondly as for teams coming back from a 3-0 series, it happens all the time. The loosing team is always more motivated that the winning team.

Lastly there's not much time a ref can spend making a decision; without making the fans restless and the game stagnant.



And most importantly people see what they want to see.



[edit on 5-28-2006 by websurfer]

i've refed hockey and soccer and it is very easy to be biased in games, no matter how short the time frame. not saying i was ever a part of it, but i have seen what one can do to a game when your calling it.

I am not sure about the fixing in favor of American teams in order to expand and improve the audience. You might be right; I am just not convinced yet. It has been shown over the past few years in the States that professional hockey is not popular nationwide. While it is popular in certain defined areas (Detroit, NY, etc.), that appeal does not cover the nation.

The league has tried for years to expand and improve its market share in the States; and it appears that they sort of 'hit the wall' a few years back. After the labor and financial issues of the past couple of years; I do not believe that expandingis at the forefront of their strategic plans.

Now, it is possible that the league might want an all-American finals in order to help the overall recovery of the sport; but we would just need to see some more evidence of fixing. We might not really know until some refs retire and might feel safe to spill their guts.

Refs are refs, games will always be one sided, biased, penalties will be missed, and teams will be given unfair calls. Its always been that way. Have you ever seen a game at the garden? Its impossible to get something to go your way. Just bc things arent going your way, doesnt mean theres a conspiracy against you.

Is the game fixed? Absolutely!!!!!

It is not any given team, instead, it is Bettman and his crew, be it his board as well, in equal breath the officials.

The scheduale and teams are allowed to go forward up to a certain point then the officials rig it so that a certain team wins, another loses.

Detroit.........., simply a mind-boggling juggernaut, nit to be possibly seen again in terms of any team demonstrating such play to such a level and what does Bettman & Co. do.......? They rig it so Detroit loses. It is not the opposing team to that of Detroit. No, not at all. "Simply" a series of deliberate bad calls which give the game to Detroit's opponent and voila..........., a new "champion".

Mike Ilitch - the Detroit Wings should sue the NHL for $1B (roughly one half its value) and additionally demand first the incarceration of Bettman, followed by his removal from the NHL and all sports, as well public enterprises of Gary Bettman and the entire NHL board. Further, sue and demand similar banishment on the part of about twelve NHL officials who are also obviously "in the fix" and are on the take.

The sport is too important, it should not be messed with, it should not be allowed to continue as a corrupt form of nothing more than entertainment.

Originally posted by xlc sil3nce
Just bc things arent going your way, doesnt mean theres a conspiracy against you.

doesn't necessarily mean they're not either it's not paranoia if everyone actually is out to get you. Go flyers! *sob*

Every year some major call in a playoff game in sports gets people on the "It must be fixed" bandwagon. If the NHL was fixed, Wayne Gretzky would have won a cup or two while he was with the Kings and the Carolina Hurricanes would have never seen their names anywhere near Lord Stanley. The sport I would say is fixed is College Football, as its the only major sport that doesn't penalize success in any real manner. Even then, with scholarship limits now, we see how the field has leveled out.