• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

2019-20 Miscellaneous NHL/Hockey News Thread

jeffbear said:
. MLB umpiring is more erratic, but honestly everything about pro baseball has been erratic for years and they're certainly not a model anybody wants to copy.
Click to expand...

In baseball for some reason, erratic umpiring is a *feature*, not a bug. Back in the day when NL home plate umps used the internal chest protector before the AL who still held the big balloon sofa cushions for protection (through 1976?), the NL umps were able to squat and see lower and so a generally lower strike zone was called and accepted in the NL than in the AL. Even today with standardized equipment, the differences in strike zones per each MLB ump, or how close each ump calls the vicinity force-out play at 2nd base, etc.. is almost celebrated as one of the quirky but accepted things in baseball, rather than something to correct and standardize. So ya, not something we want to see replicated in hockey.
 
Last edited:
andyt said:
Officiating in the NFL is a part time job, a lot of the guys are lawyers, insurance brokers, etc., something that allows them to take off on a Friday. Gene Steratore and his brother own a supply company. He was not only a NFL ref, he was a college basketball ref.
Click to expand...
I've got a buddy who was an NFL official for around 20 years before retiring around 2010 or so. Nice guy ... ran a construction company here in Raleigh, played at Va Tech back in the day, worked 1 Super Bowl and a ton of playoff games. A ton of what they make gets eaten up with travel expenses if they travel with their wives or kids ... and a lot of them do. It's very much a prestige gig rather than something that makes you a lot of money. He said he generally cleared more money working training camps and clinics in the summer than he did working the regular NFL schedule.

But let's note ... those guys may make the odd mistake but they're on another freaking planet from NHL refs. Same with NBA officials. Even with that gambling scandal they went through awhile back, those guys are the most consistent refs in sports.
 
To me one of the biggest challenges (and area of screwing up) is that it seems hockey prides itself on "situational" calls. In many cases it seems the calls that really piss off fans, coaches, players, etc are commonly the calls that happen in the third period or overtime for example and the common complaint is "how do you make/not make that call at this time of the game, especially when you've let it go earlier. To my eye, hockey seems to have more of an "expectation" around the refs making the call relative to what stage of the game is currently being played. Maybe a hard ass approach and being consistent and calling the game exactly the same, no matter what period it is would help the situation but then the complaint (maybe only for a while?) would be the refs calling ticky tack calls. "Let the boys play" would be the chorus. Hell, I sure don't know what the answer is but being a relative newly to hockey (15 years or so), I still struggle to understand the whole situational part of the reffing in hockey and how you blend that with consistency. And yes, some of them are just bad refs and suck too.
 
I think you’d need to make pretty significant changes to fix what we’re talking about. I think it’s two separate things.

1 what is the ideal for how the league feels the game should be called to make it more clear.

2 too many of the refs are awful no matter what the ideal is.

I think the new fans get frustrated with the officiating because their player got crushed or knocked down or touched and no call was made. Or vice versa. Im not saying it makes no difference but Ithink not a lot. Every non hockey fan likes to make the joke that they went to a fight and a hockey game broke out. It’s not like that and hasn’t been for years. That’s not because officiating is bad.
 
There use to be quite a few really solid refs in the NHL, Bill McCreary to me was still the best ref the NHL ever had. What has happened is that the NHL has done a terrible job of training and grooming enough quality officials to handle a 31 and soon to be 32 team league. There are simply not enough good young officials that have matched the growing pains of the league. The NHL could have thrown around a bunch of money to get these young officials better prepared for the league many years ago but they seem to be fine with the status quo.
 
CanadaCanes said:
What has happened is that the NHL has done a terrible job of training and grooming enough quality officials to handle a 31 and soon to be 32 team league. There are simply not enough good young officials that have matched the growing pains of the league. The NHL could have thrown around a bunch of money to get these young officials better prepared for the league many years ago but they seem to be fine with the status quo.
Click to expand...

THIS.

Add in the fact that the league office can't stop itself from micromanaging the process and you've got a real nightmare on your hands ... aka the current situation. The NHL invests very little in referee development, opting to hope against hope that the lower leagues and levels will produce fresh blood. So what do you do when there's been an entire generation of new refs and not a single bloody one of them is any good? Because that's where we are right now. We even act like Wes McCauley is a good ref, just because he has a personality. He isn't. None of your veterans are any good and the kids are a debacle. What's next? I guarantee you the the league office led by Colie Campbell, Bill Daly and Gary Bettman doesn't have idea one about how to work their way out of this mess that THEY have constructed with their own negligence.
 
from twitter: based on pre-game line rushes, it looks like Toronto will roll a Nylander-Matthews-Marner top line tonight. Combined AAV: $29,489,366.
 
Jay Bouwmeester collapsed on the Blues bench tonight with 7:50 left in the first period in Anaheim. He was awake and alert as he was taken to the hospital. The game was postponed.
 
andyt said:
Jay Bouwmeester collapsed on the Blues bench tonight with 7:50 left in the first period in Anaheim. He was awake and alert as he was taken to the hospital. The game was postponed.
Click to expand...
It's shocking to see that happen to a professional athlete during competition, but it does happen. I'm thankful Bouwmeester got prompt medical support and that he's seemingly stable today. As somebody who's experienced cardiac trauma personally, that's something I wouldn't wish on ANY other human. It's painful, terrifying and just a downright awful thing to have to go through ... much less to do so in front of 10s of thousands of people. Thoughts and prayers indeed.
 
jeffbear said:
It's shocking to see that happen to a professional athlete during competition, but it does happen. I'm thankful Bouwmeester got prompt medical support and that he's seemingly stable today. As somebody who's experienced cardiac trauma personally, that's something I wouldn't wish on ANY other human. It's painful, terrifying and just a downright awful thing to have to go through ... much less to do so in front of 10s of thousands of people. Thoughts and prayers indeed.
Click to expand...

Even worse, it’s the Blues Dads trip and his father was there. But I guess being there is better than seeing it on TV, thousands of miles away, helpless to do anything
 
Yeah, as a Dad I'd MUCH rather be right there on the spot than hear that kind of news on the phone ... or worse yet, watching it unfold on TV.
 
there is always a Dr at the game but pretty sure it's an orthopedist or general practice guy at most games. But they still know the basics of cardiac care.
 
A friend of mine is an Emergency Medicine specialist MD (not an ortho) affiliated with UNC Rex and Wake Forest U, and he also works for the Canes on game nights. He's there presumably for cases such as this, on standby on the ground level.
 
StormChaserBH said:
A friend of mine is an Emergency Medicine specialist MD (not an ortho) affiliated with UNC Rex and Wake Forest U, and he also works for the Canes on game nights. He's there presumably for cases such as this, on standby on the ground level.
Click to expand...

A co-worker’s daughter is a Wake County EMT. She grew up in Saskatoon and Montreal, so she’s always happy to volunteer. They hang out in the tunnel under section 102.
 
andyt said:
To the shock of no one, Jeremy Roenick was fired by NBC yesterday.

apnews.com

Jeremy Roenick won't return to NBC Sports after suspension

Jeremy Roenick will not be returning to NBC Sports after his suspension for making inappropriate comments about coworkers.
apnews.com apnews.com
Click to expand...
Even less shocking, Roenick took to social media and showed why it was a good idea to let him go ... posting a rambling, bitter, tone deaf WTF video. In truth, it's telling that NBC cut ties with Roenick because of bad behavior and not because he sucked at his job. Because he did, as does the majority of people NBC employs in their hockey broadcasting operation. They can't lose the broadcast rights fast enough for my liking.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top