Today marks the 19th anniversary of the Kerry Fraser game, which long-time readers may vaguely remember me mentioning once or twice. If you live in Toronto and were born the night of that game, today's the day you can legally start trying to drink away the pain. (Spoiler alert: It won't work.)
If you missed it on Friday, I did a post over at Grantland about the game, why it still stings for Maple Leafs fans, and while it always will: Why Won't Toronto Fans Get Over Kerry Fraser's Missed Call?
(While I don’t repost most of my Grantland stuff here, I’ve been writing there fairly often during the playoffs. You can find the full list here. I also post links on twitter and facebook, so considering following me there if you don’t already.)
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Happy Kerry Fraser Day
Follow @DownGoesBrown
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You know, DGB, regarding this - and your Grantland post - I think the Flames '04 "phantom goal" wins the award for "most egregious non-call of all time."
ReplyDeleteI get that the Brett Hull goal in '99 has a pretty strong case and tends to be the default choice... but I think what sets the Flames goal apart for me is it indesputably changed the outcome of the game.
If Hull's goal had been waved off for skate-in-the-crease, it's entirely possible one of the other Stars still could have scored and won the game. Or even if they lost, that they could have won in game 7. The Sabres weren't guarenteed to win.
Likewise, while Fraser's non-call on Gretzky was awful, there's nothing saying the Leafs would have scored on the resulting powerplay. Even if they did, it's hard to believe they'd have won in the final given the way that Montreal played (and how tired the Leafs were already from a grueling playoff run).
But the Flames? If that call was made the way it should have been, the cup is theirs. No ifs ands buts or maybes.
Y'know what kills me about the Hull-in-the-crease goal? Watch Brian Holzinger. While Hull is banging away at rebounds and Hasek is sprawled on his face trying to corral the puck, Holzinger skates right between the two of them. I'm sure he was trying to knock Hull out of the way, but missed completely. How do you miss a stationary object (and not a guy who was really fleet of foot even when not stationary)? My two cents: if you can't make that check, you don't deserve to win.
ReplyDelete