Want a Better NHL? Hire Better Refs!

I will preface this blog by saying that after having watched the Leafs-Sens game last night and then most of the Canucks-Kings game as well as parts of the Sharks-Flames games, I went to bed with such a bad taste in my mouth about the officiating in each game that I hardly wanted to watch the end of either of the late games.

Lets start with the Leaf game as there were at least 5 blown or bad calls just from that game alone. Shortly after the Leafs had taken a 2-0 lead, the Refs started to impose their will on the game, turning an end to end gem into a game that left many (including Daren Dreger this morning on TSN Radio expressing the same thing as me), shaking their heads. First there was the missed interference call on Kyle Turris as he slid into James Reimer, making it impossible for him to make the save on the first Ottawa goal. The fact he was slightly pushed into the crease area by a Leaf defender doesn't change the fact that Turris kept going and pushed Reimer enough to make it easier for Alfie to snipe the top corner on a weak backhand.

While I don't think it should have been a penalty, at the very least the goal should have been disallowed and the play restarted outside the Leaf zone as if the Senators had short the puck out of play on their own. But no. So that's 1 mistake. The second occurred when Nick Foligno, clearly reacting to how Dion Phaneuf had treated Jason Spezza in a scrum only moments beforehand, pulled the exact same move that Brad Marchand pulled on Sami Salo last week, resulting in a 5 minute major, game misconduct and multi-game suspension for the same penalty Foligno was called on; Clipping. Instead, the typical 2 minute minor and Phaneuf, appearing as if he had been concussed on the play, left to head off the ice only to return a few minutes later (probably without having gone to the "quiet room" as he should have). That makes 2 bad calls.

Just before the end of the period, bad call #3 comes to us after Foligno and Phaneuf fight it out. In what was clearly a mutually agreed upon battle, somehow the Leafs Phaneuf ended up with the extra 2 minutes (for what? I really don't know, even to this point and neither did Joe Bowen or Greg Millen). So that makes 3 now. Then, on the same power play no less, Ottawa scored to tie the game, but again it should not have counted. I'm not sure what league these officials used to work in but when an opposing player goes into the goalie as he is trying to make a save and basically sits on him, then reaches behind as the puck is loose and taps it in while impeding the same goalies ability to make an attempt at a save, by definition, it is called goaltender interference and, in this case, should have been a penalty. It wasn't and the goal counted as the only thing they reviewed was whether it was kicked in or not (it was but then was lucky enough to hit Spezza's stick before slowly making it's way over the goal line).

So that makes 4 bad calls and we haven't even hit the 3rd period yet. Kyle Turris scored the only clean goal of the night for the Sens by picking the top corner, glove side on Reimer. I can accept that. What I get mad at are clear calls that are missed when they are done right in front of the officials. With about 9 minutes left in the 3rd period and the Leafs pressing the issue trying to tie the game, Joffrey Lupul and Sergei Gonchar were battling back in forth in the corner.

The puck squirted towards the back of the net and both players pursued it with Lupul slightly ahead of Gonchar. As they both slow to try and corral the puck, Gonchar takes two cross-checks to the lower of Lupul, knocking him down on the second. This with one of the officials just 10 feet away, watching the play. After he knocks down Lupul, Gonchar grabs the puck and the Sens clear the puck with no call made by either ref. This prompted Greg Millen to wonder aloud why that wasn't called a penalty before and then to comment that the refs had "put away the whistle",  a polite way of saying that he missed yet another one.

That makes 5 missed calls in one game that should have ended at the very least at 2-1 for the Leafs but instead saw the Sens get a "officially" gift wrapped 3-2 victory. It appears to be synonymous with the current brand of NHL officials to at least either change the tempo of a good game or try to impose their will on the game at the most ridiculous times possible by making calls or missing obvious ones. I could go into just as much detail about the calls that should have been made in the other 2 games (which were just as blatant) but I think I have made my point. The point? That current NHL officials are missing more and more calls or making bad ones that make no sense.

Here's another example of something I can't stand. Player A is chasing player B (with Player B having possession of the puck). The whole time he is hacking and whacking at him as he chases him. No call. Now if Player A had instead simply put his stick in the general area of Player B's stomach and maybe even tried to lift his stick but instead made any kind of contact with Player B's hands, that's a penalty, even if  that slight hook  made no difference in the play. Another example; Player A slashes Player B's stick and the puck comes loose.
No call. Player A lightly taps Player B's stick and it snaps (because it's a piece of crap graphite stick). Penalty. There is, within the rules, a chance for the official to use his head and determine if it was or wasn't worth a penalty but 99% of the time, these guys don't use common sense or logic and just go with what they see.

It's so infuriating to watch the officials turn the game into a mockery. The credibility of the league comes into question when the officials can't get simple calls right and last night made me really wonder about the zebras out there. Can we bring back Paul Stewart or Bill McCreary or Kerry Fras...Check that on the Fraser one, he missed the easiest call ever and cost the Leafs a chance at being in the Cup Final in 1993. I guess officials are one thing over everything else: Human.