[News] Luszczyszyn: NHL playoff officiating is an embarrassment..

[Philly06Cup]

Paywall:

https://theathletic.com/2612733/2021...-for-too-long/

Some coles notes:

- Two main issues: Playoff loosening of calls. Game management.
- McDavid has drawn zero penalties in his last 8 playoff games
- Playoff standards are like Mario Kart items -- it punishes good players and rewards bad players
- Instead of promoting offence, the NHL does the opposite
- Not on the refs. They're doing what they are told. This is a league mandate.


I think more media need to call out how broken NHL refereeing is, otherwise nothing will change. Imagine if every hockey article started with, "NHL refereeing is trash". Maybe that could cause them to fix things internally.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Philly06Cup

Paywall:

https://theathletic.com/2612733/2021...-for-too-long/

Some coles notes:

- Two main issues: Playoff loosening of calls. Game management.
- McDavid has drawn zero penalties in his last 8 playoff games
- Playoff standards are like Mario Kart items -- it punishes good players and rewards bad players
- Instead of promoting offence, the NHL does the opposite
- Not on the refs. They're doing what they are told. This is a league mandate.


I think more media need to call out how broken NHL refereeing is, otherwise nothing will change. Imagine if every hockey article started with, "NHL refereeing is trash". Maybe that could cause them to fix things internally.

These guys need to actually watch the games.

I hear this stat a lot. What I dont hear about are the penalties that he should have drawn that werent called.

He played like crap, thats why he didnt get any calls.

[Zarley]

I actually prefer playoff officiating to regular officiating.

[powderjunkie]

I think it's the players who ramp up their play from the regular season, but the refs let them...which is generally good, but not always.

[Benched]

I've also heard that stat from coworkers who are Edmonton fans. "Open season on Superstars".

They must not watch any other teams. I still remember Crosby getting mauled and having to fight his own battles, then he'd complain to the refs, and being termed Crybaby for it. Concussions, slashes, etc. for years.

The league doesn't protect stars. Not sure why Edmonton/McDavid would be different.


But on topic - yes the game management is clear and ridiculous, and the 2 separate rulebooks for regular season vs. playoffs is also unfair. A good team in the regular season is not necessary built right for playoffs... Should be called as it is, despite the 'balance' and the same rules throughout the year+playoffs (to whatever standard that is)

[Ped]

Originally Posted by Locke

These guys need to actually watch the games.

They did. From the article:

Rachel Doerrie, formerly of the New Jersey Devils, rewatched every McDavid shift for the series and counted “over 30” infractions that were missed, which sounds about right based on my own live viewing. McDavid earned zero.

All of that is theoretical though. Here’s a real-world example. McDavid has had 355 distinct eight-game stretches over his entire career. He has had zero penalties drawn in an eight-game span just twice over that time period. That’s 0.6 percent.

On Monday night, Kailer Yamamoto took a penalty four minutes into the first overtime, an obvious call that should have been made. If we’re playing by the rules we all know and love for playoff overtime, that call should’ve set the standard for the rest of overtime, right? What it actually meant was that the calls were even at four apiece for the game and that was “fair.” There would be no need for further calls, both teams got their allotted power play quota and it does not matter if one team is actually playing a cleaner game than the other.
I’m sure there were calls on Edmonton I missed, maybe even obvious ones (the referees even managed to “miss” a puck over the glass call), but over the next 40-plus minutes of hockey there were at least five missed calls on the Jets. Not ticky-tack calls. Not preseason, get the rust off calls. Not even first-period calls. These were brutal, painfully obvious penalties that would normally be called 95 percent of the time. I guess Monday night was the five percent.

Hatred (or mockery) of the Oilers aside, the unhappiness with officiating and the double standards, not only between regular season and playoffs, and regulation and overtime, is starting to grow. I think the WIlson incident, followed by Kadri, was the final straw for a lot of people.

[3thirty]

It's an entire piece crying about how Edmonton didn't get the calls. Doesn't talk about any series except for Edmonton this year and the play in vs Chicago last year.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Locke

These guys need to actually watch the games.

I hear this stat a lot. What I dont hear about are the penalties that he should have drawn that werent called.

He played like crap, thats why he didnt get any calls.

They did watch the games. They counted 30 uncalled penalties against McDavid in four games. In fact, I took a penalty on McDavid when I got up to go pee.

[transplant99]

Do people really want regular season officiating in the playoffs?

I mean....take McDavid for example, you breathe on the guy to closely in the regular season, you are sitting for 2 minutes.

Now you want that stuff called in an elimination game gone to overtime?

No thanks.

[CalgaryFan1988]

Originally Posted by Zarley

I actually prefer playoff officiating to regular officiating.

So do I, but the fact that there are two standards is a joke.

[Rejean31]

Sounds like a whiny Oiler fan. I didn’t see any calls missed against McDavid in the Winnipeg series. Both him and Draisatl were checked closely but it was within the rules. If anything some of the calls that those two drew in the regular season were garbage penalties. How many times have those to dived the minute the saw an opposition stick anywhere near them? I think the playoffs, with less of the game management crap, are being called well. It’s the regular season officiating that is complete garbage.

[Coach]

NHL officiating is a joke.

McDavid not getting calls is not because of this reason.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Ped

They did. From the article:

.

I have no idea who she is but i do know this....that her count as it would be with anyones, is purely subjective.

So why do we change everything because someone somewhere decides they saw infractions in the past that weren't called?

Does this not happen during the regular season as well?

Are calls made that didn't happen?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

They did watch the games. They counted 30 uncalled penalties against McDavid in four games. In fact, I took a penalty on McDavid when I got up to go pee.

Honestly, this article is the adult-equivalent to a toddler throwing a tantrum.

"But McDavid and the Poweplay Tho!!!"

[Skaloper]

The fact teams qualify during the regular season under a set of rules that change once the playoffs start is a problem but I don't think it needs to be changed. I prefer playoff hockey but I don't think players can sustain this through an entire regular season.

The best teams need to show they can excel in the regular season to punch their ticket but also show they have another gear once the real games start.

[ComixZone]

The answer is very simple. Do away with game management, call the rule book, and make players adjust. The product will be better for it.

[Gaskal]

Lol he's just sour about his prediction about McDavid leading the Oilers to victory being totally wrong.
He had chances of a Jets sweep at a measly 6% so that must sting.

(Also, probably for being corrected on his usage of the 'whipping boy' literary trope.)

All signs currently point toward McDavid, who is on an absolute tear and has specifically made the Jets his personal whipping boy. This team has not been able to figure out how to stop him yet and it doesn’t feel like they really can given their roster deficiencies.

[neo45]

McDavid is one of the worst divers the league has ever seen yet people who cover the game conveniently ignore this little fact

He is literally constantly embellishing and complaining to the referees. An Oilers fan tried to make a compilation of all the “infractions” that go uncalled against him and hilariously made a compilation which is about 50% diving 50% effective defense

The collective delusion is real. Sorry your team that relies on powerplays isn’t effective in playoffs. Who could have seen that coming?

[Coach]

I bet if you isolated any player playing over 20 minutes you could pick out 30 plays over the course of a few games that could (ie NOT should) have been penalties, playoffs or not.

[DeluxeMoustache]

Did he mention that the refs should have whistled the play dead on McDavid’s turnovers that cost the Oilers, and give the puck back to McDavid for a do-over?