Regarding calling out the Red Wings’ for ‘cuckoo’ play

There’s no doubt that the Red Wings’ 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks pivoted upon this moment during last night’s game:

After Conor Garland inadvertently hit Filip Zadina in the face with his back/elbow while trying to protect himself, the Red Wings took issue with the Canucks’ liberties taken with the Red Wings’ players. As Helene St. James and Ansar Khan told us this morning, the Wings were quite happy with their borderline uncontrolled but emotional response to the Canucks’ physical play.

We also know that at least somebody on Sportsnet took issue with the fact that Zadina called Garland a “midget” after the game, suggesting that the NHL might want to get involved in some supplementary discipline. This morning, Sportsnet’s Vancouver correspondent, Iain MacIntyre, suggests that the Red Wings’ play after the Garland hit was plain stupid:

The clinical term for the Red Wing team’s reaction to the play was “Cuckoo for Coco Puffs.” With Zadina down on the ice hurt — one game after Detroit captain Dylan Larkin was stapled from behind by Tampa’s Mathieu Joseph — the Wings’ roster swarmed Garland.

Referees [Mitch] Dunning and [Brian] Pochmara initially signalled no penalty on Garland, but after the melee decided the Canuck should be assessed a major penalty, which allows a full video review. They watched the Zadina film like it was the Zapruder film, then reduced Garland’s penalty to a minor for an illegal check to the head and, with two roughing minors to Detroit and another to Vancouver, the teams continued at even strength.

Since Canucks coach Travis Green and Red Wings bench boss Jeff Blashill both yelled at the referees, we’re guessing Pochmara and Dunning fairly adjudicated the incident. It was what came later that was dangerous.

Unsatisfied with the referees’ interpretation, the Wings spent most of the final nine minutes attacking Garland and leaving Greiss alone to deal with the other 19 Canucks.

Robbi Fabbri slashed Garland with impunity as the Red Wings’ Lucas Raymond was being called for holding, and at the start of another shift, Detroit’s Adam Erne appeared to whack the Canuck in the face a soon as the puck was dropped.

“I don’t know how that’s not a penalty,” Green, who rarely wades into officiating in his post-game comments, told reporters on Zoom.

The NHL long ago eliminated the quaint notion of players policing themselves, and seized control of all matters of conduct and discipline. It is the referees’ job to protect players, and they clearly left Garland at risk. Zadina went to the dressing room but finished the game.

Both coaches at least expressed on-the-bench opinions suggesting the refereeing during the game was substandard–and they were correct in their assessments that the refs lost control of the game on multiple occasions–but, for every instance where someone like poor Conor Garland was “left at risk,” Vancouver players were instigating equal numbers of post-whistle extracurriculars.

Moritz Seider got speared in the balls by Oliver Ekman-Larsson in the 3rd period, with OEL and Tyler Bertuzzi going off for roughing minors as a result (as noted by the Winged Wheel Podcast’s Ryan Hana)…

Oliver Ekman-Larsson spears Moritz Seider in the balls. Bertuzzi goes after OEL.

Offsetting minors on the play. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/gzCHOPpu7J

— Ryan Hana (@RyanHanaWWP) October 17, 2021

And, yes, Bertuzzi and his mates were far too distracted with attempting to fight the Canucks at every whistle (and were caught chirping the Canucks at every time that the game camera would pivot its attention to the Red Wings’ bench)…

But let’s be honest here.

Both teams played pretty damn dirty, and pretty damn uncontrolled hockey last night. Ekman-Larsson also did this to Nick Leddy (as noted by the Detroit News’s Nolan Bianchi):

Oliver Ekman-Larsson becomes the latest opponent to drill a Red Wings into the boards from behind. Givani Smith to the rescue #LGRW pic.twitter.com/vIpXL30FC5

— Nolan Bianchi (@nolanbianchi) October 17, 2021

Now we’re two games into an 82-game season, but I’m going to be blunt here, even as someone who tries to be objective as he covers the team he chooses to invest his time, energy and money in following:

This shit has already gotten old. The narrative that the Red Wings are somehow a naughty, nasty team of ruffians whose offensive antics must be answered with valiant responses from the other team–and the always-objective referees–strikes me as false equivalency here.

I sure as hell wasn’t happy when Bertuzzi or Givani Smith let their tempers get the better of them, chasing after any Canuck whose gloves weren’t literally taped onto their hands (a la former Wing Mikael Samuelsson) during the latter half of the third period.

But those things happen when the referees lose control of the game, and while these younger, leaner Wings definitely need to control their tempers better, and focus more on making sure that their opponents pay during the play between the whistles (instead of focusing on after-the-whistle scrums)…

These Red Wings have found some very engaging combatants who have gotten away with their fair share of shenanigans over the first two games of the season.

And

I get it. If you’re not a Red Wings fan–let’s say, like the estimable Canucks fan/blogger Daniel Wagner of “Pass It To Bulis” on Vancouver is Awesome–you’re going to say that the Red Wings were the ones who got away with murder on Saturday night. The Athletic’s excellent Harman Dayal and Thomas Drance, two correspondents who are dispassionate in their demeanors, also weren’t thrilled with Detroit’s actions last night.

But the Red Wings’ fan base–and the team itself–is still dealing with the aftermath of their captain being suspended for defending himself after being hit in the numbers into the boards.

Emotions are going to be high, perhaps to the point of boiling over when tempted to do so, on this team. And unless and until the officials who usually do a professional job of their own in steering teams away from post-whistle bullshit actually get a handle on games involving the Red Wings, the “Enemy Press” is not going to be happy watching Detroit stick up for itself.

The thumbnail on Alex Wood’s 16-minute highlight clip of last night’s game says it all:

In a perfect world, I’d be as happy as the next Wings partisan to suggest that the Red Wings need to spend more time focusing on playing the game and less time focusing on managing the game themselves.

And I am not angry at Conor Garland for his hit, even if the “midget” got away with a bit of a dangerous play (regardless of what coach Travis Green thinks of it) in sticking his ass out in order to protect himself, only to connect with Filip Zadina’s face. Those things happen in the game, and, as Garland himself said, Zadina is okay, which is the important thing here.

But the Red Wings’ players have every right to defend themselves in a manner that does not stop at scoring on the power play. They’re allowed to get emotional. They’re allowed to get angry. And, sometimes, they’re allowed to get mean and nasty (albeit on the controlled side of “cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs”).