GDT: May 11 • Switzerland 4, Denmark 1

[Justinov]

The guys from Sport 1 also mentioned the inconsistency in refereeing this year. In one game situation X gets called, in another game its a good play. I have only seen the Swiss games plus Finland-Russia yesterday, and based on that I have to say yes, refereeing is obviously a mess regarding consistency. The first Swiss penalty today was a slashing penalty, and when you compare it to the slash-fest yesterday in the Finland game, it was a love tap. If those slashes yesterday were not called, the one today definitely shouldn't have been called...

Well since you don't have the same referee for all matches it will be refereed differently, since people are different.
Today the referee put down a line for the players to follow that was harsher than the Finland-Russia match where more stuff were allowed. A fairly non-physical game will often have "weaker" calls than a very tough game. In a tough game to have the referee have a forceful line laid down would constantly put people in the penalty box.
Refereeing is mostly about putting down a line that preserve the flow of the game and avoid escalation. Different matches calls for different judgement.
Every referee has to be consistent within the game itself - that's more important than what occurred one match before.
Inconsistency within a game often develops very badly with players trying to take advantage of a shaky referee.

 

[QuietContrarian]

Well since you don't have the same referee for all matches it will be refereed differently, since people are different.
Today the referee put down a line for the players to follow that was harsher than the Finland-Russia match where more stuff were allowed. A fairly non-physical game will often have "weaker" calls than a very tough game. In a tough game to have the referee have a forceful line laid down would constantly put people in the penalty box.
Refereeing is mostly about putting down a line that preserve the flow of the game and avoid escalation. Different matches calls for different judgement.
Every referee has to be consistent within the game itself - that's more important than what occurred one match before.
Inconsistency within a game often develops very badly with players trying to take advantage of a shaky referee.

That is what pisses me off... Imo there has been A LOT of it!

 

[Justinov]

That is what pisses me off... Imo there has been A LOT of it!

Yep that is what irritates everyone - both players and fans.
The problem is that different hockey nations have different kind of acceptance levels in their leagues - and you have multi-national refereeing within each game.
Maybe you should have stable refereeing teams - "refereeing lines".

 

[QuietContrarian]

Yep that is what irritates everyone - both players and fans.
The problem is that different hockey nations have different kind of acceptance levels in their leagues - and you have multi-national refereeing within each game.
Maybe you should have stable refereeing teams - "refereeing lines".

Yeah, I guess that is a clever assesment of it! I never really considered it from that pov.

It's not like today's game was that bad ref-wise, but against the Czechs, it was really bad imo.

But what about the WC this year? Very even and not alllot of Blowouts - I only think Slovenia and Norway have been blowout so far?

 

[latvianhockeyfan]

Yeah, I guess that is a clever assesment of it! I never really considered it from that pov.

It's not like today's game was that bad ref-wise, but against the Czechs, it was really bad imo.

But what about the WC this year? Very even and not alllot of Blowouts - I only think Slovenia and Norway have been blowout so far?

Only 3 games. Russia 6:0 Latvia, Canada 7:1 Norway, Switzerland 7:1 Slovenia.

Next games- with 4 goals margin.

 

[Justinov]

Yeah, I guess that is a clever assesment of it! I never really considered it from that pov.

It's not like today's game was that bad ref-wise, but against the Czechs, it was really bad imo.

But what about the WC this year? Very even and not alllot of Blowouts - I only think Slovenia and Norway have been blowout so far?

and Latvia 0-6 to Russia.
I think it has been a great WC with all these tight matches.

But the Norwegians will surely be proven right about the smaller nations being punished (Denmark and Norway getting a lot of penalties) if Kovalchuk doesn't even get a suspension for both slashing a Finnish guy on the bench and a glowed fist to the head of Pesonen during the match. 1 day suspension for the first and 1-2 days suspension for the second should be minimal.
I would have him removed from the entire tournament for unsportmanlike conduct and disregard for other players health.