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TheSquatch · 03-04-2019, 01:05 PM

Pun intended, I guess.... I don't think the NHL tries to "fix" games, really, it's too difficult to get away with in this day and age. But let's face it, a bunch of the officials in the NHL are neither especially good nor especially consistent.

There's a post in the current GDT about Hathaway getting 5 and a game for "intent to injure" and the league not looking further at it because there was no intent to injure.

So... okay?

Ovi's non-goal in the Caps' shootout against NYR is called just that on the ice, and AFTER a huddle up by the on ice officials. Ovi knows it's an awarded goal because he knows the rules, he's mystified at how the ruling on the ice could even be discussed. And he's dead right - the league has to phone up the ref (Pierre Lambert) and say "Hey, that's an automatic goal under the rules." He skates to center ice and announces that it's a goal after all. This guy literally didn't know the rule, nor did the others on the ice, obviously. Goalie threw his stick, it wasn't an accident or even a close call. No contact was made. They blew it.

So here's just two calls, one of them game-deciding (and I'm not arguing that the Hathaway call was blown - it happened fast, looked bad, and it's a bad hit.... at the same time, was Chara even given an interference penalty for nearly breaking Pacioretti's head on the stanchion?). But we've seen important calls, and we've seen ridiculous calls - tripping penalties in the last minutes of games where NOTHING has been called.... weird stuff missed, weird stuff called. I thought when Backlund got blown up by Dumba, it was clearly head-first contact, and a totally unecessary hit at the end of a game, for example... no call. There's a million borderline examples, and a million clear-cut examples where you can watch a ref watch a clear infraction and just... do nothing.

I'm not suggesting they are out for the Flames either - I see bad calls, weird calls, non calls every night that are just frustrating as hell for the teams and worse, for the fans.

So I see it as a pretty big problem for the NHL. The players don't know what is or isn't a penalty on any given night, and inside that night, things change seemingly at random as well.

More training? More replays, or more challenges? More on-ice officials? Should linesmen be calling penalties as well? Or is this just something that has to be lived with in a league this large and a game this fast?

03-04-2019, 01:05 PM	#1
TheSquatch Powerplay Quarterback Join Date: Jan 2019 Exp:	How does the NHL fix officiating? Pun intended, I guess.... I don't think the NHL tries to "fix" games, really, it's too difficult to get away with in this day and age. But let's face it, a bunch of the officials in the NHL are neither especially good nor especially consistent. There's a post in the current GDT about Hathaway getting 5 and a game for "intent to injure" and the league not looking further at it because there was no intent to injure. So... okay? Ovi's non-goal in the Caps' shootout against NYR is called just that on the ice, and AFTER a huddle up by the on ice officials. Ovi knows it's an awarded goal because he knows the rules, he's mystified at how the ruling on the ice could even be discussed. And he's dead right - the league has to phone up the ref (Pierre Lambert) and say "Hey, that's an automatic goal under the rules." He skates to center ice and announces that it's a goal after all. This guy literally didn't know the rule, nor did the others on the ice, obviously. Goalie threw his stick, it wasn't an accident or even a close call. No contact was made. They blew it. So here's just two calls, one of them game-deciding (and I'm not arguing that the Hathaway call was blown - it happened fast, looked bad, and it's a bad hit.... at the same time, was Chara even given an interference penalty for nearly breaking Pacioretti's head on the stanchion?). But we've seen important calls, and we've seen ridiculous calls - tripping penalties in the last minutes of games where NOTHING has been called.... weird stuff missed, weird stuff called. I thought when Backlund got blown up by Dumba, it was clearly head-first contact, and a totally unecessary hit at the end of a game, for example... no call. There's a million borderline examples, and a million clear-cut examples where you can watch a ref watch a clear infraction and just... do nothing. I'm not suggesting they are out for the Flames either - I see bad calls, weird calls, non calls every night that are just frustrating as hell for the teams and worse, for the fans. So I see it as a pretty big problem for the NHL. The players don't know what is or isn't a penalty on any given night, and inside that night, things change seemingly at random as well. More training? More replays, or more challenges? More on-ice officials? Should linesmen be calling penalties as well? Or is this just something that has to be lived with in a league this large and a game this fast?