[blender]

Originally Posted by united

I like it.

It's been evident for years now that NHL referees are the worst officials in professional sports (aside from the convicted match fixers), but the challenge has exposed just how bad NHL linesmen are, too. For years I would watch games and say to myself "that was offside" - usually with nothing exceptional happening afterward - but current replay shows even I, and countless others, from hundreds of feet away or watching in real time on TV, get it wrong less often than the linesman right there do.

The next step is having accountability for the officials. Mark Cuban, in the NBA, is routinely fined and criticized for questioning why veteran officials with lengthy lists of blatantly wrong or downright missed calls are still employed, and the NHL has the same problem. If the majority of the population is bad at their job, they lose their job. If you're an NHL official, it's a lifetime gig regardless of performance. On a rush, the linesman has one job: is this offside or not? It really isn't hard to figure out - or shouldn't be.

Offside is a rule and should be called correctly. The other thing NHL linesmen are routinely and by all accounts purposely brutal at calling? Icing. The rule is the red line, yet every game there is players bailing out and dumping it down from 5 feet short of the red line. Call it as it should be or don't have icing at all - or change it to blue line like many beer leagues. As much as people mock travelling in the NBA, icing in the NHL is just as bad.

I agree with your general sentiment, but I happened to be watching NBA highlights lately and I don't think icing is nearly as bad as traveling.