‘Game management’ at the root of NHL’s officiating issues

cbcwpg

Registered User
May 18, 2010
20,099
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Between the Pipes
https://www.tsn.ca/game-management-at-the-root-of-nhl-s-officiating-issues-1.1307201

Plenty of research exists on this front, but the long and short of it is that officiating teams don’t call games; they manage them. Michael Lopez’s seminal research clearly exhibited what he called “biased impartiality,” or an officiating team’s attempt at being perceived as fair above all else. Phil Birnbaum’s research showed similar results. This is critical, because it’s the one data point we have that suggests referees have more of an interest in balancing calls than getting the calls right. That is a foundational failure, and until it is fixed, you will always have quality criticisms.
 

FlameChampion

Registered User
Jul 13, 2011
13,522
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Its pretty obvious just watching the games, that game management is happening.

I think the NHL just needs to be consistent.

If its a penalty, call it. Who cares if its preseason, regular season, playoffs, late in the third, overtime etc. There will always be issues with reffing, but if they were consistent, I think it would improve and clean up the game immensely. We can sit here and blame individual refs, but I do think they are given directions from the league on how to ref, which is a major part of the problem.
 

bambamcam4ever

107 and counting
Feb 16, 2012
14,301
6,344
https://www.tsn.ca/game-management-at-the-root-of-nhl-s-officiating-issues-1.1307201

Plenty of research exists on this front, but the long and short of it is that officiating teams don’t call games; they manage them. Michael Lopez’s seminal research clearly exhibited what he called “biased impartiality,” or an officiating team’s attempt at being perceived as fair above all else. Phil Birnbaum’s research showed similar results. This is critical, because it’s the one data point we have that suggests referees have more of an interest in balancing calls than getting the calls right. That is a foundational failure, and until it is fixed, you will always have quality criticisms.
Great post.

When people (referee defenders/sycophants) say "we can't hire better refs, these are the best out there," this is wrong because these refs are hired and judged on their ability to manage or control the game, not to call it accurately.
 

Lonewolfe2015

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Dec 2, 2007
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As long as refs are called out publicly, benched from series for wrong calls, etc they'll be inclined to protect themselves by calling in a balanced manner. If the NHL is serious about removing game management then they need to give the refs runway to be wrong.

Re-education during the summer months, permission to call everything and clear responsibility on the ice for the near versus far official so they can convene but know whose call it is. Let them call it, live with the mistakes knowing it's more impartial.

The problem now is it's neither impartial nor accurate, so you can't live with bad calls since there will continue to be more.
 

Guided by Veseys

Registered User
Nov 14, 2011
3,704
2,996
The coaches keep yelling for even up penalties and it has become commonplace to call them. The refs just need to deal with the BS and show a spine.
I think this is just the refs way of trying to make it the smoothest evening possible; if they don’t come close to evening out the calls a coach and the players will crap on their heads and effect the refs job security.
 
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The Zermanator

In Yzerman We Trust
Jan 21, 2013
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Its pretty obvious just watching the games, that game management is happening.

I think the NHL just needs to be consistent.

If its a penalty, call it. Who cares if its preseason, regular season, playoffs, late in the third, overtime etc. There will always be issues with reffing, but if they were consistent, I think it would improve and clean up the game immensely. We can sit here and blame individual refs, but I do think they are given directions from the league on how to ref, which is a major part of the problem.

Agree completely with this. At first you'd end up with a lot of anger as players get called for things they didn't before, but over time an equilibrium would be found as the players grow accustomed to the new regime.

There's too much uncertainty right now. As soon as you introduce factors beyond what's strictly happening on the ice, you open yourself up to a never-ending game of back and forth. And then the bias (outside factors like game management) only gets worse as you always have something to make up for, it's like a snowball effect. And that's what we see now.

A trip is when a player gets his stick in another player's feet and the latter falls, that's it. If the refs miss it, too bad and better luck next time. Overall, I think missed calls would balance themselves out over the course of a season if the rules were always applied consistently and strictly.
 

Hockey Crazy

Registered User
Dec 30, 2008
2,942
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https://www.tsn.ca/game-management-at-the-root-of-nhl-s-officiating-issues-1.1307201

Plenty of research exists on this front, but the long and short of it is that officiating teams don’t call games; they manage them. Michael Lopez’s seminal research clearly exhibited what he called “biased impartiality,” or an officiating team’s attempt at being perceived as fair above all else. Phil Birnbaum’s research showed similar results. This is critical, because it’s the one data point we have that suggests referees have more of an interest in balancing calls than getting the calls right. That is a foundational failure, and until it is fixed, you will always have quality criticisms.
IMO this is the biggest problem in hockey right now. If you make an infraction, you get a penalty... it should be simple as that. I hope something is done but it will probably take years.
 

Mc5RingsAndABeer

5-14-6-1
May 25, 2011
20,184
1,385
https://www.tsn.ca/game-management-at-the-root-of-nhl-s-officiating-issues-1.1307201

Plenty of research exists on this front, but the long and short of it is that officiating teams don’t call games; they manage them. Michael Lopez’s seminal research clearly exhibited what he called “biased impartiality,” or an officiating team’s attempt at being perceived as fair above all else. Phil Birnbaum’s research showed similar results. This is critical, because it’s the one data point we have that suggests referees have more of an interest in balancing calls than getting the calls right. That is a foundational failure, and until it is fixed, you will always have quality criticisms.

Excellent post. This is why teams that push the boundaries of the rules of the game are rewarded in the playoffs.

The NHL needs to take a strong, hard look at this if they want to preserve the long-term integrity of the game.
 

MadLuke

Registered User
Jan 18, 2011
9,409
5,066
I think I prefer in sport when playoff feel different than Regular season and referring/game management is part of that, overall I think I like hockey referee managing game, I think in one of these playoff games there was an obvious over the glass occurring in the overtime of game 7, wasn't called, did look perfectly accidental and not in a crucial defensive move, I personally liked it.
 

dortt

Registered User
Sep 21, 2018
5,297
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Houston, TX
even the WWE referees are told to call it by the rule book, and they are fined if they do not (see the Wrestlemania ref)

You know the officiating is bad when the WWE has more legit officiating than the NHL's "game management"
 

Dirty Dan

Saturday Night Lupul
May 5, 2010
4,320
1,192
in ur crease
Yup when the leafs didnt score on their early PPs against the bruins i knew they were toast.....

but u gotta have a good PP u can win with just special teams. scoring 5v5 is real hockey tho
 

Mickey Marner

Registered User
Jul 9, 2014
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Dystopia
It would be nice if refs were upfront about how strict/lenient they intend to be before puck-drop. I don't expect game management to be curbed, but at least teams can know going in how the game is going to be managed.

As an aside, last year a bunch of the more well-know analytic guys (DTMAH, Corsica, Dom Luszczyszyn etc.) had a year-long contest to see whose model best predicted NHL game outcomes and Michael Lopez's model absolutely mopped the floor with them. Gretzky-like domination. So, it's possible refereeing has more predictive value than shot-attempt based statistics.
 

bambamcam4ever

107 and counting
Feb 16, 2012
14,301
6,344
It would be nice if refs were upfront about how strict/lenient they intend to be before puck-drop. I don't expect game management to be curbed, but at least teams can know going in how the game is going to be managed.

As an aside, last year a bunch of the more well-know analytic guys (DTMAH, Corsica, Dom Luszczyszyn etc.) had a year-long contest to see whose model best predicted NHL game outcomes and Michael Lopez's model absolutely mopped the floor with them. Gretzky-like domination. So, it's possible refereeing has more predictive value than shot-attempt based statistics.
For those of us not in the know, how is Lopez's model different?
 
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3074326

Registered User
Apr 9, 2009
11,574
10,970
USA
As long as refs are called out publicly, benched from series for wrong calls, etc they'll be inclined to protect themselves by calling in a balanced manner. If the NHL is serious about removing game management then they need to give the refs runway to be wrong.

Re-education during the summer months, permission to call everything and clear responsibility on the ice for the near versus far official so they can convene but know whose call it is. Let them call it, live with the mistakes knowing it's more impartial.

The problem now is it's neither impartial nor accurate, so you can't live with bad calls since there will continue to be more.

I strongly disagree that removing consequences for bad officiating will make it better. The call at the end of the Blues/Sharks game 100% deserved consequences and I'm glad we saw them. They should just not manage the game and call penalties when they see them. I can handle a mistake here or there, but the ones we've seen in the postseason so far, a few of them are unacceptable and the officials 100% did not deserve to continue officiating in the postseason.

I agree with the rest of your post though.

Making mistakes with no consequences pretty much always leads to the same mistakes again in my experiences.
 
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toomuchsauce

Registered User
Jan 7, 2015
2,617
1,639
https://www.tsn.ca/game-management-at-the-root-of-nhl-s-officiating-issues-1.1307201

Plenty of research exists on this front, but the long and short of it is that officiating teams don’t call games; they manage them. Michael Lopez’s seminal research clearly exhibited what he called “biased impartiality,” or an officiating team’s attempt at being perceived as fair above all else. Phil Birnbaum’s research showed similar results. This is critical, because it’s the one data point we have that suggests referees have more of an interest in balancing calls than getting the calls right. That is a foundational failure, and until it is fixed, you will always have quality criticisms.

This is why it is infuriating to hear so many Hockey Men say they "gotta get the calls right" vis-a-viz video replay and challenges. Meanwhile, refs are deliberately making numerous non-calls during the course of the game because that is how they are instructed to operate (wouldn't be fair to call all the penalties, right?), and that has a bigger impact on the game, by far, than one blown call that leads to a goal one time. But, of course, the blown call was the last thing we saw, and now the game is over, so we are extremely mad about it, and there should be a law against that kind of thing!
 

BlackDogg

perpetuum defectum
Oct 3, 2015
40,378
40,242
This is probably the most "true" thread I've seen on here.

I wonder what officials fans of each team do not want to see officiate their games. There is game management mandated by the league, and there is also natural bias I believe whether against certain players or teams.
 

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