If you don't want to hear "whining" then you should stop reading now, otherwise continue at your own peril.
So how many times have you watched a game (or even played in one) where the referee or umpire made a bad call that you felt cost a team a real shot at winning? I'm sure all sports fans have gone through it. And what's the typical response to that? It's the old, "Well it wasn't just that one call. They had plenty of other chances to win the game." or "They should be good enough team so that calls like that don't matter." Well, I'm here to say, "Fiddlesticks!" (It's a family friendly blog. I'm trying to keep it clean here.)
Who doesn't remember the call against the Orioles (back when I actually cared about baseball) back in the 1996 ALCS versus the Yankees, when a punk kid reached over the railing to interfere with a live ball? It got called a homerun that tied the game when most likely it would have been caught by Tony Tarasco for an out. NY would later go on to win that Game 1 and win the series (as well as the World Series that season).
Or how about the non-fumble call on Tom Brady in the 2002 AFC Divisional Playoff game when the Raiders who had been leading at the time would have sealed the game? Instead Vinatieri tied the game and then won it for the Pats in OT (leading them to their eventual win in Super Bowl XXVI).
And most recently, what about the reversal of the goal scored by Alex Ovechkin early in the third period of game 7 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals which would have tied the game and given the Capitals momentum in front of their home crowd? Instead, the Canadiens would hang on to win that game (and eventually their 25th Stanley Cup. Huh?! What?).
Heck, as a Redskins fan I can even remember a game against Green Bay in 2004 during Gibbs 2.0 where James Thrash was called on a mysterious illegal motion call which negated a TD that would have put them on top with less than 3 minutes to play. Instead, Green Bay would go on to win that game, even though George W. Bush would go on to claim the presidential election that year (read up on Redskins home wins and presidential elections).
Now I'm not trying to make excuses for teams that should win, but why can't sports fans say, "That ref cost us the game!"? If the logic applies that an athlete can make that one play which can turn around a game, a series, or a season, then the same logic applies to the decisions made by those officiating the games. I know the culture is to say that you or your team should be good enough so that doesn't become a factor, but in this day and age when parity in sports is the norm bad calls have a large impact on the outcome of a game. At the end of the day, refs are a factor in whether a team can play for a championship or not, so they should be able to take some blame as well.
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Bravo! I'm one of those who says they had other chances to win. For the matter of the Caps, note Game 5 & Game 6 as well. But you are right. If Game 7 was meant to be, then the bad call was a game changer. I'm not exactly saying it was a bad call. I couldn't tell even at slow motion replay. But if the official had doubts live, he should have allowed the goal then let it get reviewed. If it was really interference, it would be called.
It's like the dreaded NBA and even March Madness. Officials "unofficially" are instructed to "Let them play" in the 4th quarter/last 5 minutes or so. Because that's when the better team should show up. Call the obvious and blatant things, but let the borderline slide by.
Of course, that kind of changes the game too. Boy my head hurts now.
It is ok to say the refs suck.
Everybody can do it. The big thing is that as fans we only remember the calls that go against our teams.