Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkGio
Let's not pretend officials aren't the same human beings as players, who can have a bad day, can get defense, can seek Schadenfreude, or who can even troll. If would be foolish to pretend these guys are some sort of Buddhist monk with little no error in their conduct, while the rest of us need to be "big boys".
I've seen officials flat out troll a team and smirk about it. I've heard officials threaten players. And what happens almost every game and time I've played any sport being officialled, is I recieve insecurity and aggression from an official if you ask them to justify their call.
I agree with the sentiment from other posters that there needs to be more transparent accountability regarding the officials, especially considering the players are under constant slow motion surveillance and publicized discipline
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Yeah, the training ground for officials is not all benevolent hockey lords. The vast majority of refs I encountered when coaching high-level youth hockey are straight up a**hats. Think they can do no wrong, their decisions are always in line with the rules, and Hockey Canada has zero accountability for them.
I've seen refs shout slurs at kids, swear at kids unprompted, take obvious control of a game for poops giggles, try to hit on moms while games are going on. It was actually at the point where getting even half decent reffing was a major talking point amongst opposing coaches.
The NHL standing behind refs no matter what is not unique to that league. I get no one should be getting abused, but that includes by officials and their conduct should be under just as much scrutiny and penalized just as harshly.
We've seen some pretty shotty reffing so far this season, and does anything seem to get done about it? How come blatant missed calls aren't publicly retracted? What's wrong with acknowledging, "yup, I made a mistake. My bad."
Very few refs have ever said those words to a coach or player, at least in my experience. And the ones that do are generally much more respected by everyone involved.