The Standard of Confusion
I’ve not said anything in the debate about how penalties are being called this season. Generally I think enough people are already whining about it, and I’ve got little to add anyway. My opinion is that the refs often take an undeserved amount of crap from people as they work to find a balance between limiting obstruction, while still keeping the game moving. Mistakes are made, but that’s to be expected.
But last night’s Canucks/Wild game defied any explanation other than bad, bad officiating. So many problems, I don’t even know where to start. Fortunately, The Province’s Ed Willes pretty much nails it with his column today.
Here’s a portion:
The game lurched from whistle to whistle without cohesion or rhythm. Eighty per cent of the offence was produced on the power play. Players struggled to locate where the line was between fair and foul. […]
On a call that defied reason, [Jan Bulis] took a roughing minor during a battle for the puck with the Wild’s Todd White in the second period.
Eighty-six seconds later Kevin Bieksa was sent off for attempting to hold a member of the Wild during a post-whistle scrum.
The resulting five-on-three, we remind you, was in a tie game late in the second period.
“Oh my gawd,” said Bulis. “What the hell was that. I’ve never seen a call like that. It was a one-on-one battle. I’ve got both my hands on my stick. I didn’t hit him. I just kind of leaned into him.”
But this isn’t about one fluffed call or a misjudgment or even the video replay, which the Wild had a legitimate beef about. This is about the standard. This is about the game the NHL is trying to create.
And there are just too many games players, fans and the media, like Bulis, are wondering what the hell was that.
December 17th, 2006 at 7:01 am
I’m increasingly seeing that the standard has shifted from too far in one direction to too far in the other. I’m sorry, but when a love tap or a stick-lift is hooking, there’s something way the fuck wrong over here.
December 17th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
It was a messed up game and I’m all for them letting up on some of the calls. Hockey is a physical sport — sometimes players might actually touch each other.
December 17th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
I was watching the Habs v Devils from early December the other day…it was a great game which went into OT. Late in the 3rd, there is a Hab rush and Brodeur makes a great save…the puck pops up into the air and the Devil D-man (can’t remember who), hand-slapped the puck out of the arena…over the glass. I’m watching and immediately yell, DELAY OF GAME! I was wrong…no call. They showed the replay over and over and it was so incredibly obvious…the ref was right there watching the play too…no call. Perhaps the NHL feels there is a different between throwing the puck out of the rink, and accidentally popping it off the glass and out of the rink?
I feel as though the refs in the NHL are some of the best. But the true merit of a great ref, is if you don’t notice them. They just call the game and manage the game through constant communication with players, etc. I actually go back to rugby referees for that. They are constantly in communication with the players and the captains to ensure everyone understands how the game will be played. You rarely see the good one-to-one conversations with captains in hockey that you do in rugby.