The Oilers should worry less about playing mind games with the refs and concentrate instead on preserving 3 goal leads:
Where the Hurricanes are concerned, a big contributor to their victory on Monday wasn't just Conklin's performance but what they did at the faceoff circle. Carolina won 45 of 73 faceoffs in Game 1, due in large part to Rod Brind'Amour's work on the draw.
The Oilers, in turn, have labelled Brind'Amour - the league's top faceoff man this season - a 'cheater' on faceoffs.
Oilers centre Shawn Horcoff wasn't shy about saying that at all. Brind'Amour fared better than 80 percent on the draw, compared to about 30 percent for Horcoff. The Oilers argue this was made worse by the fact that Brind'Amour's a veteran who gets benefits from the linesmen.
Horcoff, who had a running battle all night with the linesmen and referees, said that Brind'Amour did get tossed out of the circle on a few occasions. But it was only because they complained so much that the referees started making the calls instead of the linesmen.
Horcoff had a real nasty exchange with one of the linesmen in Game 1, and some video will be put together for the NHL and its officials on what they believe to be Brind'Amour's 'cheating.'
The Oilers' argument will be that he does not line up straight at the circle and comes in on an angle. They'll also point out that he benefits from putting his stick down and lifting it up again.
Anything else? Oh yeah - he's also better than anyone else in the entire league.
Either get over it, Horcoff, or else let someone else take the draws.
