Referees deciding games

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hornethockeymom
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2011 10:54 pm

Referees deciding games

Post by hornethockeymom » Tue Feb 07, 2012 9:41 pm

I know this is an old topic, but it has become worse in the weeks since the Jablonski hit. Referees are all over the board with these calls. These kids don't know what to do on the ice, because they are never sure what type of referee they are going to get.

The bottom line is that the kids need to be able to play the game of hockey. Who is holding these referees accountable for consistency???

HSRef77
Posts: 28
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2010 4:13 pm

Re: Referees deciding games

Post by HSRef77 » Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:00 pm

hornethockeymom wrote:I know this is an old topic, but it has become worse in the weeks since the Jablonski hit. Referees are all over the board with these calls. These kids don't know what to do on the ice, because they are never sure what type of referee they are going to get.

The bottom line is that the kids need to be able to play the game of hockey. Who is holding these referees accountable for consistency???
I'm not sure I follow......checking from behind, boarding, hits to the head, etc. were penalties before Mr. Jablonski was injured. The only thing that has changed is the penalty minutes.

hjbbbhockey
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:21 am

Re: Referees deciding games

Post by hjbbbhockey » Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:39 pm

HSRef77 wrote:
hornethockeymom wrote:I know this is an old topic, but it has become worse in the weeks since the Jablonski hit. Referees are all over the board with these calls. These kids don't know what to do on the ice, because they are never sure what type of referee they are going to get.

The bottom line is that the kids need to be able to play the game of hockey. Who is holding these referees accountable for consistency???
I'm not sure I follow......checking from behind, boarding, hits to the head, etc. were penalties before Mr. Jablonski was injured. The only thing that has changed is the penalty minutes.
Those penalties existed prior to the Jabs tragedy but they are being called more frequently now. Did players all of a sudden decide to transgress more often or were Refs just not calling penalties earlier, or are they just trying to appear more attentive by calling as many calls as possible?

In my opinion it almost seems there is a quota of "Big" penalties that refs must call to be considered responsive. These calls appear to be predominantly against big physical players. It seems if a check makes a certain amount of noise, a penalty must be called. I have observed several examples of a player skating with the puck and being checked where the checker goes to the box. One in particular had the two biggest players racing down the ice at top speed. The check applied was hard, and was called a charge, the ref said he could have called a 5 minute major for too big of a hit. But, how is one to catch up to a fast player heading up the ice without skating fast to the player? Should the refs be surprised when two big skaters, moving very fast down the ice make a bunch of noise when they collide with the glass?

Perhaps we need lines up and down the ice about 12 feet from the walls and you just can't skate the puck up on the outside. Or, perhaps we need to impose speed limits. Why should the rules changes favor the very fast skaters and penalize big and fast skaters?

The refs have become very erratic in my opinion. Based on the fact that there are no new infractions but there are lots more penalties called now, either the Refs were derelict in calling penalties before or players have decided in the shadow of tragedy to turn up the physical part of the game or the Refs are under some sort of mandate to call penalties as a demonstration of their commitment to safer hockey.

Until all aspects of the game which might hurt skaters, hard pucks, hard sticks, too much speed, hard walls, heavy nets, sharp blades, skating along the boards and whatever else then this is just witch hunt window dressing which may prevent some injuries but really is a myopic solution.

LaceEmUp17
Posts: 153
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:32 am

Post by LaceEmUp17 » Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:51 am

I would agree. While these have all been penalties in the past, they are certainly being called/enforced more strictly. I don't have a problem with the added time to the penalties, but I'd like to see them call the game like it was called before the Jabs incident. Call the penalty when it is actually a check from behind, not some phantom body contact that looks bad out of the corner of the ref's eye. HJ - I'm not sure about the "quota", but I can see how one might think that.

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