Why is NHL Officiating So Difficult?

[Alaska Darin]

This is the situation:

 

Under two minutes to play, Tampa up by a goal.

 

Lecavalier breaks in, fakes a slapshot, goes around the net and deposits the puck in the net to put his team up two. Well after the puck is in the net, Dennis Gauthier crushes Lecavalier with what under normal circumstances would be a clean hit. However it clearly fits the definition of the "Kariya Rule". The Referee is in such good position, Lecavalier ends up sliding into his feet. VLC gets up and RIGHTLY goes after Gauthier, who does defend himself. What does he call?

 

He gives LECAVALIER the only penalties. Two for instigating, five for fighting, and a ten. Gauthier gets nothing.

 

Utterly ridiculous. The NHL has tried like hell to leftislate fighting out of the game and this is the result. One of these days one of the scorers is going to end up paralyzed (or worse) because of it.

 

I won't even get into the ridiculous major for boarding they called on thug Hatcher. Not that he didn't deserve a penalty but that was nowhere near a major.

 

Have I mentioned I hate Gary Bettemen lately?

[blugold43]

i saw it and i couldn't believe it either.

[Alaska Darin]

i saw it and i couldn't believe it either.

The worst part is they now have TWO referees missing this stuff. At least when there was only one guy they had that excuse.

[blugold43]

well the ref in question couldn't have been any closer, so he obviously had his mind made up early. it was a totally gutless call.

[mrjsbu96]

This is the situation:

 

Under two minutes to play, Tampa up by a goal.

 

Lecavalier breaks in, fakes a slapshot, goes around the net and deposits the puck in the net to put his team up two. Well after the puck is in the net, Dennis Gauthier crushes Lecavalier with what under normal circumstances would be a clean hit. However it clearly fits the definition of the "Kariya Rule". The Referee is in such good position, Lecavalier ends up sliding into his feet. VLC gets up and RIGHTLY goes after Gauthier, who does defend himself. What does he call?

 

He gives LECAVALIER the only penalties. Two for instigating, five for fighting, and a ten. Gauthier gets nothing.

 

Utterly ridiculous. The NHL has tried like hell to leftislate fighting out of the game and this is the result. One of these days one of the scorers is going to end up paralyzed (or worse) because of it.

 

I won't even get into the ridiculous major for boarding they called on thug Hatcher. Not that he didn't deserve a penalty but that was nowhere near a major.

 

Have I mentioned I hate Gary Bettemen lately?

 

 

i did not see the play in question, but aside from the theory that officials are trying to take fighting out of the game, do you really think that he made the incorrect call on purpose? i could even consider this point if we were not talking about one of the leagues future stars in Vinny Lecav, but that is not the case.

 

They are all human. Who knows - maybe he was looking at the goal, someone in the crowd, players in front, but just something that distracted him from this 'crushing hit' that you mention, and then he caught everything else. I speak from experience when I say that officials don't catch the retaliation on purpose and it is what sounded like happened here.

 

Point being is that it is extremely easy to stand in the crowd or watch tee-vee and armchair officiate hockey, but once you are on the ice it is a totally different atmosphere..

[Alaska Darin]

i did not see the play in question, but aside from the theory that officials are trying to take fighting out of the game, do you really think that he made the incorrect call on purpose? i could even consider this point if we were not talking about one of the leagues future stars in Vinny Lecav, but that is not the case.

I don't know the reason he made such a blatantly bad call. If it wasn't on purpose than he should be sanctioned because that call was complete horse crap.

 

They are all human. Who knows - maybe he was looking at the goal, someone in the crowd, players in front, but just something that distracted him from this 'crushing hit' that you mention, and then he caught everything else. I speak from experience when I say that officials don't catch the retaliation on purpose and it is what sounded like happened here.

Then there is a serious flaw in the way things are done. There are FOUR people on the ice capable of talking to each other about what they saw. It's simply not possible that all FOUR of them completely missed what happened. For crying out loud Lecavalier never got more than a stride above the goal line, was between the closest referee and the net, yet ended up at his feet in the corner sprawled out on his face. He immediately went after Gauthier. Gauthier defended himself (which is a minimum roughing penalty), yet got NOTHING. Before I call SEVENTEEN minutes in penalties on one player, I may want to ask my fellow on ice officials if they saw something I didn't (even though I was no more than TEN FEET away the whole time).

 

Point being is that it is extremely easy to stand in the crowd or watch tee-vee and armchair officiate hockey, but once you are on the ice it is a totally different atmosphere..

Gee, thanks. Never played the game. <_<

[Taro T]

I don't know the reason he made such a blatantly bad call. If it wasn't on purpose than he should be sanctioned because that call was complete horse crap.

Then there is a serious flaw in the way things are done. There are FOUR people on the ice capable of talking to each other about what they saw. It's simply not possible that all FOUR of them completely missed what happened. For crying out loud Lecavalier never got more than a stride above the goal line, was between the closest referee and the net, yet ended up at his feet in the corner sprawled out on his face. He immediately went after Gauthier. Gauthier defended himself (which is a minimum roughing penalty), yet got NOTHING. Before I call SEVENTEEN minutes in penalties on one player, I may want to ask my fellow on ice officials if they saw something I didn't (even though I was no more than TEN FEET away the whole time).

Gee, thanks. Never played the game. <_<

AD, thanks for the update on the play. The guy who is (or maybe was) in 2nd behind me in my points fantasy league has Vinny and I was wondering what the heck gave him a 20+ point night.

 

Any thoughts on whether Vinny and Torts get the automatic suspension / fines or whether they get the "Gretzky exemption"?

[gregkash]

that official will be reprimended.

 

you can't give a fighting penalty without a matching. It's not really a fight if one person is swinging and the other isn't.

[Taro T]

that official will be reprimended.

 

you can't give a fighting penalty without a matching. It's not really a fight if one person is swinging and the other isn't.

Actually, you can and one of the funniest things I ever saw was a time it worked against the Sabres. In the last season in the Aud, Buffalo was playing TB and getting thumped. Matt Barnaby decided he was going to try to fight Ciccone to change the momentum. Ciccone was listed as 6'5", 220 but I think he was even bigger than that. Barnaby is listed at about 6', 185, but I think he's more like 5'10" 175. Barnaby drops his gloves and starts swinging away with all his might. Ciccone stands still, drops his stick but not his gloves and watches as Barnaby lands about 75 punches in his chest. Barnaby is going wild and doing no damage whatsoever. After about 1 minute, Ciccone grabs Barnaby to keep from getting punched. Barnaby got the fight, instigator, and misconduct and all Ciccone got was a good massage. 7 minute powerplay Lightning.

[LabattBlue]

I agree. The "no call" on Gauthier was . The referee should be taken to task before he gets on the ice again.

[chileanseabass]

it was a load of crap, that's what it was. anyone interested in seeing it, go to www.hockeyfights.com and click on the videos link on the left.

[BuffalOhio]

I say this as a Level 4 USA Hockey Official with 9 years of experience.

 

The hit on LCV was just before the horn went off, and Gauthier wasn't looking at the puck to see it in the net. He was doing his job. Yes, it was after the goal was scored, but not so long after it that it was too late. He was already striding toward LCV when the goal went in.

 

I see no problem with LCV getting the penalties he received (with less than 2 minutes left in the game, it doesn't matter anyway), but Gauthier should have at least gotten a roughing call. I think that's where the problem lies.

 

As for the Kariya rule, I'm not familiar with it.

[mrjsbu96]

I say this as a Level 4 USA Hockey Official with 9 years of experience.

 

The hit on LCV was just before the horn went off, and Gauthier wasn't looking at the puck to see it in the net. He was doing his job. Yes, it was after the goal was scored, but not so long after it that it was too late. He was already striding toward LCV when the goal went in.

 

I see no problem with LCV getting the penalties he received (with less than 2 minutes left in the game, it doesn't matter anyway), but Gauthier should have at least gotten a roughing call. I think that's where the problem lies.

 

As for the Kariya rule, I'm not familiar with it.

 

You can always spot a fellow official DC - I'm "only" a level three though! :)

 

Is there a lot of good junior and college hockey down your way? I pretty much go up to high school and Midget AAA up here and the high school is really nothing special, but we still had to NIHOA certified to officiate it.

[BuffalOhio]

You can always spot a fellow official DC - I'm "only" a level three though! :)

 

Is there a lot of good junior and college hockey down your way? I pretty much go up to high school and Midget AAA up here and the high school is really nothing special, but we still had to NIHOA certified to officiate it.

 

There's some decent junior hockey here. Junior Nationals and Virginia Statesmen of the Colonial Hockey Association. I ref some of that, but mostly line.

 

I do a lot of midget , bantam, and high school, too.

 

I was a linesman for the USA Hockey Nationals in 2003 in Laurel, MD. Got to see Crosby dominate when he was only 15 for Shattuck St. Mary's. I just had SE District Midgets last weekend, too.

 

Nothing wrong with being a level 3. What matters most is your hustle, positioning, and game management. Besides, it's a lot of fun to do, too!