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Refs: Good, Bad, or Ugly?


buddhahoodlum

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This is my first original post so please be gentle. This post is meant to generate discussion. I am not trying to pile on the hate for the refs. I understand they have an incredibly tough job calling a game where plays happen in the blink of an eye. But...

What is your honest assessment of the reffing in the NHL? Poor? Best they can do? Good? Do you think there is an anti-Canucks bias or are other teams equally the victim of this perceived poor officiating? Do the calls truly even out over the course of a season? I'd love to see stats on this but I understand they probably aren't kept.

I am especially interested in soliciting the opinions of fans who watch other teams besides the Canucks and/or who watch the other North American pro sports leagues. I have seen many games over the past few years (since 2011 especially) where the Canucks have seemingly gotten the short end of the stick. I'm not ready to believe in an anti-Canuck bias, but...

Gregory Campbell's dad hands out the longest SCF suspension for a slightly late hit while letting Boychuk's(?) hit on Raymond go unpunished. There is also the Stephane Auger incident. And all those 5 on 3s versus Anaheim. So, do you believe refs hold grudges against players? Does that impact their ability to be impartial?

As a fan, what, if anything, do you think could be done to create greater transparency in how the league conducts officiating? I know for myself the in-game management is probably the most frustrating. If a team is losing late in the game you can almost guarantee they will be given a free pass to trip, hook, and interfere with the goalie until they tie the game up. All I want, and expect from our refs, is a little more consistency.

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oh my.

Sutherland, O'Halloran, Tim Peel, Chris Lee, Chris Rooney - the absolute worst in the business, perhaps the worst in professional sports period.

unprofessional, unaccountable, incompetent.

that said, there are a number of guys who do a consistently, good job - and don't stick out like a sore thumb every time they step on the ice. No one is perfect, but those guys above are extremely consistent game wreckers.

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The referees are overall decent to pretty good.

It's unreal how they're able to make GOOD decisions in real-time. That being said, there have been some absolutely dreadful calls. It's not quite as easy as it looks on TV. They're looking at A LOT of stuff and being able to generate a decision IN SPITE of unpopularity is a key part of being a referee. You'd need mental toughness and leave the 'nice guy' out the door.

Some things you should let go (minor slashes, etc)... but some things you just need to enforce more (head-shots, etc)

They're still too inconsistent to be considered 'good'. Maybe the fault of the NHL for not properly standardizing the calls, rather than the referees themselves that can't possibly watch all the games to see how other refs are calling them.

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oh my.

Sutherland, O'Halloran, Tim Peel, Chris Lee, Chris Rooney - the absolute worst in the business, perhaps the worst in professional sports period.

unprofessional, unaccountable, incompetent.

I don't know what the benefit to the NHL is in having poor officiating. It leaves a bad taste in the mouths of the fans. Of course. Bettman works for the govenors and not us. IF the NHL is rigged, as unlikely as that would be, then having really bad refs would be an excellent cover.

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What the NHL needs to do is get back to the 1 referee, 2 linesman game. The players know the rules, it creates more ice for the game to be played on, and cuts out that nonsense of the guy the furthest away making that penalty call. The linesmen can make those two many men calls if they are missed. The two ref system creates the ego mentality, one always trying to outdo the other.

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oh my.

Sutherland, O'Halloran, Tim Peel, Chris Lee, Chris Rooney - the absolute worst in the business, perhaps the worst in professional sports period.

unprofessional, unaccountable, incompetent.

I don't know what the benefit to the NHL is in having poor officiating. It leaves a bad taste in the mouths of the fans. Of course. Bettman works for the govenors and not us. IF the NHL is rigged, as unlikely as that would be, then having really bad refs would be an excellent cover.

Key points bolded. Also, the 2nd and 3rd bolded points may be summed up as asked and answered.

Haven't seen so much to complain about lately, mind you. A relative lull, perhaps?

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It's improved in some ways this year. I like the huddle, and them having the ability to overturn a call (ex. Crosby's penalty vs Hawks).

But sometimes it's just awful. Blatant missed calls, phantom calls, you name it. There's no anti-Canuck bias, but it does seem like some refs have grudges against certain players. It also wouldn't surprise me if the refs are told to help a certain team in the playoffs.

Suspensions aren't ref related, and that's a whole different story anyway, one that's possibly even more inconsistent.

Don't count on games being called evenly. Refs are always trying to keep games close, and I still can't stand the rule changes that come during playoff games.

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In a perfect world I believe the NHL should show some level of leadership on this issue.

Make public a summary report card of on-ice officials following each season. Transparency of what criteria and standards are used to evaluate the performance of individuals and who does the assessments. List the officials who been deemed to be the best at their jobs and provide performance incentives. Indicate who will be on the officiating team for the next season and thereby indicate who will not continue.

The reality seems to be the league avoids this topic and hide behind their CBA with the officials as an excuse not to be open and honest about the actions of their employees.

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I'm on the side of letting the game happen and not calling every single little thing. That's why the Bruins game and the Wild game last night were so entertaining. The refs should let the players be physical. It's a contact sport. Not the soccer world cup where players depend BIG TIME on every call.

This style of reffing can lead to more injuries (since the play will be more physical), and more butthurt fans who want every off-move by a player called, but the players will be PLAYING CONTINUOUSLY. They'll be in the frame of mind that they can compete hard and not have to worry about stupid easy calls.

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Honestly, I don't have a problem with officiating in the NHL as a whole. Have there been some bad calls over the years? Yep. Have their been some attrocious calls that completely changed the course of a game? Yep. But in all honesty, I watch just about every team play, theres nary a night that goes by that Im not watching a game of some sorts, and I can say, that at least its consistent. Bad calls don't fall on any one team more then any other. And, for the most part, the refs are really on top of the game, as much as any human can be. Short of designing some sort of computer that can read a play with 100% accuracy, they are doing the best they can. In the end every team has been on both ends of a bad call, and for the mostpart, the calls are accurate and on par. Its a poorly informed hockey fan who blames his/her teams success/failure on officiating. I learned that during the Flames last cup run when I felt that the game 6 cup winning goal was in! LOL

But really, the reffing in our league is consistent from team to team. I can think of at least 10 bad calls that went Calgarys way this season, and at least 10 that went against them, same goes for Vancouver, and Edmonton, the two teams I watch most after Calgary, and same goes for the remainder of the league. For ever bad call that goes against a team, I can easilly think of a call that favoured them.

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Officiating has been absolutely unacceptable for years. That being said, it's mostly the league's fault at this stage. When people like Sutherland are allowed to repeatedly disgrace their profession by being either corrupt or incompetent, and still permitted not only to retain their jobs, but to be assigned playoff games, there's little motivation for other refs to act in a professional manner.

At this point, the only way the league will clean up its act is if someone forces it to through legal action.

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What really bothers me is the removal of the ref cam. The league passed up a prime opportunity to actually make their refs accountable and use it as a tool for evaluations. Instead, they'll let Sutherland keep pulling his garbage and deny there is any issue despite evidence to the contrary.

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