What's the NHL Problem: Officials or Rulebook?

[saucelife90]

Yup this a great breakdown. I follow the NHL the most but follow the other leagues as well. The NFL has by far the biggest problem with this in my view (of the big 4) because of how much one play can affect a game and the whole "what is a catch even" issue. Also, the irony that the NFL, by far the most valuable league in the world measures first downs by a ref saying "yeah right about here" but then pulls out the chains is really funny in my personal view.

Baseball is the best and worst. The best in that some/many embrace the "strikezone is ump dependent" idea. The worst in that now with video review bad umps get crushed and their are sets who adjust run totals based on umpires.

Boxing and fighting sports I do not really follow but I know from time to time have massive controversies over fights being stopped. Given the incredibly serious complications/issues over stopping/not-stopping I do not envy any of those refs.

Further, the whole refs changing calling the rule book (on penalties) and "putting whistles away" in OT 3rd period/playoffs is a related but different issue in my view. I would love to get to a world where a penalty is a penalty is a penalty. If a player is hooked call the bloody thing. I have always said a failure to call a clear penalty IS the refs "deciding the game" and is a far bigger problem then a team winning a playoff game on a powerplay goal.

I'm on this boat too, and the one I hate the absolute most is the "retaliation" call. If you call the first slash or punch, you remove the scrums that happen afterwards. Clean up the initial acts, and you clean up the game. Guys will stop the after the whistle nonsense because they know they'll be putting their team in a bad spot taking that initial penalty.

[2014olympicgold]

My theory is that the league is only listening to people who pay for cable and it's an older generation who thinks a slash to the hands is a weak penalty if it doesn't mimic an axe chop. Once they realize there is a large audience out there they aren't tracking want things called the proper way, then it'll switch.

They should be catering to the social media crowd where it's about highlights and short clips. The more open the game, the more likely MacKinnon/McDavid put up highlights that'll trend on twitter. If you get that crowd during the highlights, maybe you get them to watch the full game.


Just a theory. But I think they should be directing their target to twitter/insta/snap users. These slow 2-1 tight checking games are fun to watch to a point live, but you aren't gaining new fans that way. Another benefit of calling penalties is, you'll get a more even game and less "the refs control it too much" in terms of gambling. You want gambling to be something in hockey, and the more predictable things are, the more money will be gambled, the more a Leafs fan will watch a Tampa vs MTL game because they dropped $20 on it.

Call the penalties so new people understand it
Call the penalties so people will bet more on it
Call the penalties to open up 5on5 for highlights
Call the penalties to bring in new fans. If people want hitting, they watch football. If people want fighting, they watch UFC.

[audiopile]

Diving in to this without reading first;

The whistle should have blown when Kuempers mask came off after he saved the puck. Immediately. However this is an even up for the Makar offside which i guess was ok but in the spirit of the game it was an offside by a mile. Hockey gods sorted that out.

The rulebook is poorly written. The officials are not consistently applying the book as rules soften over the course of a season and disappear entirely in the finals. Is it “ok” because its come to be expected? We have the league watching games now and they should call the horn whenever an egregious oversight is made or a call is wrong on ice. Crowd says “ref you suck” at least once per game.

My last add - if you are gonna make offside reviewable then first implement the tech to do it properly. These off angle fuzzy screened low frame per second cameras are not adequate.

[rataylor22]

The whistle should have blown when Kuempers mask came off after he saved the puck. Immediately.

The Kuemper play was called correctly, to the definition of the rule, with zero ambiguity. The rule book specifically has a provision for exactly what happened on that play.

"When a goalkeeper has lost his helmet and/or face mask and... the opposing team has control of the puck, play shall only be stopped if there is no immediate and impending scoring opportunity."

IE like if a player is about to shoot a puck into a wide open empty net with no risk to the goalie, which is exactly what happened.