I'm not actually saying this as fact but some of the calls against Vancouver made it feel like the refs were trying to cover a bet.
The call on Petey might be the worst and most nonsensical penalty call I have ever seen. Like I would expect Leah Hextall to guess that that was the penalty when really it was a hand pass or something and have her say, 'um, maybe Petey for charging?'
I know that they would say they called the jump. But he didn't even jump towards Foegele, he jumped straight up anticipating the hit and went for the reverse hit.
My girlfriend who is just learning hockey texted me asking me to explain how charging works because she was very confused.
If it didn't make sense to her, imagine how those of us who have been watching hockey for decades and NEVER seen a call like that felt.
The Dakota Joshua penalty on McDavid was embarrassing, the goalie interference penalty was embarrassing.
But I'm so proud of this team, man alive do they believe in each other, they love each other, they love the fans, and the fans love them. This feels like 1994, it's incredible.
Petey was far far better and more incisive.
One thing that I don't think people may have noticed that I found amusing.
So Petey was partially responsible for 3 plays that were either a goal or almost a goal.
He took a shot from the point that was tipped and dragged off of the goal line. The puck popped out towards him and he missed it because he was celebrating what he thought was a goal.
Then when Hoglander hit the post, Petey again can be seen celebrating for one brief moment.
Hilariously, when Miller scored it was clear Petey didn't want to be fooled again, so while others were cheering he was shooting the rebound that had popped out of the net (and didn't manage to put it past Pickard lol).
All of the analysis I saw said, 'it was lucky Lindholm's shot went off of something'.
That wasn't luck, that was superlative skill by Petey due to his soccer skills. That was a backheel kick towards that net that hit the post and caused that rebound.
Credit where it's due, Petey was a big factor tonight and as one of his biggest fans I'm thrilled to see it.
We know he has more gears so hopefully this is just the start, but this was definitely him playing at a different, more incisive level than we have seen.
I f***ing love this team.
