Hockey Reporters or Home Team Toadies? You be the Judge.

Darryl Sutter knows how to bait the media: serve up a few choice quotes with a straight face, then sit back and enjoy the fallout in newspaper columns and TV reports. It worked yesterday, when the Calgary coach more or less accused the NHL of conspiring against the Flames in the Stanley Cup Final. Sutter must be have had himself a good laugh this morning, watching the media hacks tie themselves in knots.

Is it any wonder that so many fans snicker when they hear the phrase “sports journalism”? Given the level of chitchat served up from the average media clubhouse, we ought to call it “sports hysteria.” Consider a couple of other choice examples from recent days:

In Calgary, fans were upset by the officiating in Monday's game four, a 1-0 win by Tampa Bay that tied the series at two games apiece. The Flames essentially fell on their swords in this one, in part by loading up on dumb penalties – cross checks after the whistle, head shots in the closing minutes, and so on.

Naturally, all of this is the fault of the referees, not the players. That’s how Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun saw it on Tuesday:

If ever there was an argument against the two-referee system it was highlighted last night when Kerry Fraser and Brad Watson essentially handed the Tampa Bay Lightning Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final.

Might've handed 'em the Cup, too.

Like almost everyone at the Saddledome that night, Francis is most upset by the 5-on-3 power play that resulted in the only goal of the game:

The simple truth is no matter what time of the game it is, handing a team a two-man disadvantage for petty crime should be a punishable offence itself. Especially given the nature of Clark's routine jostling with Pratt, which goes uncalled nine times out of 10 in these playoffs. To single out a player for contact like that is one thing but to do it after whistling his teammate seconds earlier is something few teams can rebound from.

Given the result, we should expect sunshine and light from the Florida media gang, right? Wrong.

When Ville Niemenen ran Vincent Lecavalier head-first into the boards near the end of the game, you knew a crusader for justice would emerge from the press box. Sure enough, Joe Henderson at Tampa Bay Online produced a hellfire-and-brimstone sermon on the subject of those wicked Calgary Flames:

There had better be an announcement today that Calgary's Ville Nieminen has been suspended for the remainder of the Stanley Cup final. When the predictable outcry comes from all provinces in Canada, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman should tell them to shut their yaps…

The Lightning are young, play an entertaining style and have a chance to earn the league some converts.

What has happened, however, is that they're playing a team that believes the only way to win is to maim its way onto Lord Stanley's stein…

There is physical and there is dirty. The Flames are the ones caked in mud.

And it's only going to get worse.

If this series goes seven games, the Flames will be over the boards and into the Lightning bench before it's over.

When not frothing with the rage of the righteous, Henderson notes approvingly that Lightning coach John Tortorella has been “measured in his comments” regarding the hooligan tactics. Tortorella can afford to be, when he has hometown media flaks doing all the work for him.

As it turns out, the dastardly Ville was not banished for the remainder of the series. The NHL suspended Niemenen for one game. To anyone who knows the NHL disciplinary system – and who doesn’t bleed Lightning blue – the verdict was predictable.

Of course, Niemenen is just the symptom. The problem is the entire Flames' team: a disgrace to hockey, a threat to decency, the enemies of a just and civil society. In his litany of Calgary sins, Henderson notes that Tampa defenseman Pavel Kubina was “victimized in the first period of Game 3 when Calgary's Martin Gelinas left his feet and led with his elbow into Kubina's head. Gelinas got a two-minute penalty; the Lightning lost the use of their best defenseman. Interesting, huh?”

Interesting indeed. One can’t helped but recall game four of the Eastern Conference Final, when Lightning center Tim Taylor left his feet to hammer Joni Pitkanen, the Philadelphia defenseman, banging his head off the glass. Pitkanen missed the next game, and is believed to have played the rest of the series with concussion symptoms.

One searches for the Joe Henderson column calling for retribution against the thuggish, mud-caked Tim Taylor. One searches in vain.