Let's Talk About Refs

Simon B

    So we're about halfway done the NHL's regular season (can you believe it?!) and I've wrerappreciated people in the game: Referees. Refs are often overlooked; the only time they get nitten about the teams and their players but I haven't spoken about some of the most undoticed is when they make an obvious mistake.     

    There is a little bit of officiating history In my family. My grandfather Lorne was a referee in a junior recreational hockey league in Hamilton, Ontario. I also have experience umpiring (not quite the same intensity of experience as a hockey referee but still very relatable). My Aunt Judy told me that part of why Grandpa stopped reffing was because the parents. 

So on a very personal level, I  often sympathize with referees when they have a tough decision to make. They're probably the only people on the ice that benefit from the absence of fans because they don't get yelled at for making a call that favors one team or the other. I know what it's like to be yelled at by a parent who disagrees with a call I made or having to stand my ground against a coach who is disputing a decision: trust me, it feels hard, but it's all part of the job

Types of Officiating

I have to say that there have been some major differences in the way games are officiated this year compared to...previous years? Or specifically pre-pandemic? Normally, the officiating is very strict as the  season begins, and there are often many penalties. Around game 15 or so, the refs  let some slashes or light hooks go without any consequence. Then there's playoff officiating, in which the refs call penalties on those same infractions much less often.. We see far fewer calls, a high tolerance for big hits, and much more physical play (one of the reasons the Leafs have had playoffs struggles by the way: they rarely have a bench that can deliver sustained physical play if they get far enough into the season to need it to win). 

    

That's the usual pattern of officiating as the season unfolds: much less physical than 20 years ago. Today’s teams (and refs) know that generally tight officiating supporting greaterplayer safety is much more important than the drama of sometimes bone-busting body checks (however popular the latter may be for some of the fans  NHL refs have given out [what number, and what percentage increase? Be specific. It shows you do your homework, and want to educate your readers, giving them something they might not otherwise have known] more suspensions for on-ice (as opposed to things that aren’t related to hockey such as judiciary issues)  over the past 10 years as a result.

What's Different This Year

The season started off with the usual level of inconsistency and a lot of questionable calls. But were just under 25 games in (in a 56-game schedule) and the officiating hasn't changed much from game one.

There are a lot of taps on the gloves that are getting called for slashes or players tripping over themselves and getting a power play out of it. Refs usually see things from a bad angle or prematurely blow the whistle. I'm not quite sure how things are south of the border (because I don't get to watch many non-North Division games) but here, I’ve seen consistent inconsistency throughout the season so far.

    

Remember  the Leafs’ game against the Oilers back in late January? In the first period, Oiler defenseman Darnell Nurse basically had Mitch Marner in a headlock deep in his own end, and no ref called for a hold. Yet in the third, Marner tugged a bit onto Nurse's arm and got sent to the box for two minutes for holding. Now, I'm not saying that  Marner’s hold on Nurse didn’t deserve a penalty, but I am saying that if it did,  then the Nurse play earlier in that game should have been  at least a two-minute minor.

Why I Think This Is Happening

There are a few reasons.

   

The first is something called a "makeup call." I'm guilty of doing this sometimes in the baseball game I umpire. This is when a call was made against one team but after the fact, you realize that it really shouldn't have been. For instance, if I call a strike against team A but after thinking about it realize it should've been a ball, I'm probably going to call the next borderline pitch a ball to make up for it. 

   

Most of the players know that this happens all the time so that's why they don't always complain about it. But from a fan's standpoint (especially those of us who are watching on TV) there's no way to tell if it's a makeup call or not. I'm sure some of these relatively "bad calls" are makeup calls.

    

Another reason is video replay. I think refs are less inclined to put as much thought into calls because if a coach disagrees with it, they can always go to replay. Once they call the situation room in Toronto, it's no longer the ref's decision so they're off the hook. This happened in the last Montreal-Toronto game. The Habs scored but after conferring with each other, the refs decided to take a second look at it on replay to see if there was goaltending interference. They then determined it was a good goal. Naturally, the Leafs coaching staff argued the decision and they decided to use their coach's challenge (each team gets one each game). When a coach challenges, this is when they go to the situation room. They reversed the call and the goal was disallowed.

    

My question then becomes, what did the situation room see that the refs didn't? This is the type of inconsistency that bugs me a bit.

 

Sidebar: You may have been reading my GOAT series. I was thinking about this as I was writing about the refs and realized I rarely think about who these guys are as human beings. I mean, how many NHL refs can you name? Better yet, ever wonder who players think is the greatest NHL referee of all time? Find Out Here.

The Wrap

 Referees have the hardest job in all of hockey because no team likes them and they're an easy target for fans to blame the outcome on. But we can't play games without them! And, like ‘em or not, when no ump shows up to one of my baseball games, and it gets postponed, everybody who shows up -- players and fans alike -- feels let down. So here’s  to the dedicated and hardworking refs who make possible the game we love.  Even if they make a call against your favorite team, just think of the difficulty of their job and realize that they are doing the best they can.

P.S.:  Ever want to know how somebody becomes an NHL ref? Here!

    

If you have any other sports topics you'd like to read about, let me know in the comments or send me a message in the "Contact me" section in the sidebar!

   

Thanks for reading! I'd love your comments and questions.  Please share with friends and take  a moment to subscribe (head to the sidebar and sign up under the "subscribe" section) so you can read all my post-game pieces on the Leafs as well as my takes on the big news in Toronto sports and more. It would mean a lot.

#NHL #shootsleftandwrites #slaw #Refereeing