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

[Warden of the North]

Not a good look.

It's bullshit.

 

[TKB]

Game management is not a hockey thing, it's a NHL thing. So you don't have to imagine, you can just look to the rest of the hockey world if you want to know what it looks like.

That is just not true.

Here are some direct quotes from the USA Hockey Advanced Officiating Manual.

At the highest levels of hockey, an official’s role is one of a “game manager.” Game managers can be defined as managing the progress of the game in a safe and fair environment while using good judgment...

The four criteria for the calling of an infraction are listed below. 1. An infraction wThese infractions are referred to as “black and white” penalties that must be called every time they occur.hich causes a loss of a scoring opportunity 2. An infraction that creates a potential for injury 3. An infraction that is blatantly obvious 4. An infraction which causes an immediate change of possession or advantage gained....

Marginal infractions are those that are also known as the gray area. These infractions do not meet the above mentioned penalty criteria. The vast majority of the time, they simply are not penalties according to the enforcement standard...

The old school train of thought suggests an official who calls every situation strictly by the letter of the rules will be extremely unpopular. The game will have numerous unnecessary stoppages that will add to the frustration of the players. Spectators will also become frustrated by the length of the game and lack of continuous action. In this case, no one really wins, except for the game...

On the other side of the coin, an official who refuses to call infractions when they occur will also run into considerable trouble. This official often jeopardizes the safety of the players and could affect the actual outcome of the game. Although the spectators may be attracted to the rough and tumble continuous action, the players and coaches view this official as being lazy and not caring about a quality performance...

The fine line between these two examples is where game management fits in. The game manager promotes a continuous flow to the game without compromising the safety or fair play respected high level officials throughout the world may apply of either team. The successful game manager calls every infraction that falls under the four criteria for a penalty....

A successful high level coach once said; “There are probably only five calls that a referee has to make in every game to successfully officiate, and this could include a no call. The difference between a good referee and a great referee is the JUDGMENT USA Hockey Advanced Officials Manual 23 great referee will not only accurately make those five calls in every game, but will also be able to recognize which situations were the five critical calls for each game.”

 

[Il Stugotz]

That is just not true.

Here are some direct quotes from the USA Hockey Advanced Officiating Manual.

That’s a good quote and I agree with it.
I just don’t think NHL refs are upholding the fairness principle when they let one team get away with a lot and then call ticky tack crap on the other team in order to keep things equal. They’re achieving parity but not necessarily fairness.

 

[syz]

Admittedly I haven't watched international hockey in probably a decade because big ice bores me, but my memory of those officials is that they'll call anything at any time regardless of the score.

 

[Slaaapshuter]

That is just not true.

Here are some direct quotes from the USA Hockey Advanced Officiating Manual.

What is said in that quote is a different thing than what is discussed in the thread.

 

[TKB]

That’s a good quote and I agree with it.
I just don’t think NHL refs are upholding the fairness principle when they let one team get away with a lot and then call ticky tack crap on the other team in order to keep things equal. They’re achieving parity but not necessarily fairness.

And I certainly wouldn't dispute that the NHL's version of game management should be up for criticism and debate.

I also understand how fans can view the whole thing as random and without reason. The NHL should long ago have taken steps to communicate the realities of officiating challenges with hockey to educate viewers at home.

I do have a strong disagreement with the no game management and related "all the rules, all the time" idea.

Further, there are legitimate reasons that explain some (much?) of the correlation data being thrown around (not to mention the specific data needs to be clarified. Looks to me like this is aggregate not game by game, and I have no idea if it includes co-incidental penalties).

As for Tim Peel's words, I wrote at the time that he was basically admitting to his crew that he made a bad call and was trying to justify it. I have heard/had a hundred similar conversations in my time (if not that direct about "I wanted a penalty"...but then again we didn't hear the whole thing) Paul Stewart wrote a good blog yesterday that included the same idea.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Game management is not a hockey thing, it's a NHL thing. So you don't have to imagine, you can just look to the rest of the hockey world if you want to know what it looks like.

100% incorrect, it's 100% a hockey thing.....

 

[Slaaapshuter]

100% incorrect, it's 100% a hockey thing.....

Nope, not the way it's portrait in the thread

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Nope, not the way it's portrait in the thread

No idea what you mean with that, but to say that game management is just an NHL thing and not a hockey thing, is 100% incorrect.

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

And I certainly wouldn't dispute that the NHL's version of game management should be up for criticism and debate.

I also understand how fans can view the whole thing as random and without reason. The NHL should long ago have taken steps to communicate the realities of officiating challenges with hockey to educate viewers at home.

I do have a strong disagreement with the no game management and related "all the rules, all the time" idea.

Kind of funny but I was thinking earlier, "Imagine if the NHL pulled a WWF"? For many years the WWF fought totth and nail against being portrayed as fake or scripted. Then one day they decided to admit and embrace. Their world didn't end.

Would be interesting to see a pro league approach it differently. At least how they explain it, rather than denying what's right in front of people's eyes.

 

[WatchfulElm]

What I understand after 2 days of debate about game management by the refs :

1- People directly involved in the NHL (players, former players, former employees, hockey insiders) : "Don't change anything! Games need to be managed!"

2- Fans : "Game management ruins the show and makes the NHL look like a Mickey Mouse league. Can't you see it?"

 

[Slaaapshuter]

No idea what you mean with that, but to say that game management is just an NHL thing and not a hockey thing, is 100% incorrect.

Means that refs are actively taking current penalties into account, trying to keep powerplays even and taking score into account to try and give the losing team a fighting chance. True or not, that is what being discussed as game management, and that is not a hockey thing.

 

[Tacitus Kilgore]

Lol he knows whatever he is about to say, would get him canned if it were to go public. Mickey mouse league shit

 

[Tyrolean]

Doesn't surprise me one bit. Everyone knows games are managed anyway. Always thought of the NHL as a low integrity league. Arbitrary calls, 2-3 point games, Stupid entry draft lottery system.

 

[canuckster19]

Refs don’t want to feel like they defined the outcome of the game, and the game is too fast to always get every penalty 100% correct.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, unless the infraction hindered a good scoring opportunity, then there shouldn’t be power plays. Maybe there needs to be a yellow card red card system like Football where a player gets ejected. At least that way there can be underway reviews to determine whether the card was deserved or not.

 

[613Leafer]

Means that refs are actively taking current penalties into account, trying to keep powerplays even and taking score into account to try and give the losing team a fighting chance. True or not, that is what being discussed as game management, and that is not a hockey thing.

Sort of seems like it's a thing.

10 year sample size on penalties for vs penalties against being HIGHLY correlated for NHL teams. You'd think fast skilled disciplined teams would draw a lot of penalties from teams that can't keep up with them while also taking few penalties of their own, but instead, they take few penalties and they also draw very few penalties.

2013 study on "biased impartiality" of NHL refs which determined that penalty differential and goal differential were both predictors of who would get the next penalty (surprise to no one - teams with fewer penalties and teams in the lead are more likely to get the next penalty).

A second study from Simon Fraser University finding the same thing.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Means that refs are actively taking current penalties into account, trying to keep powerplays even and taking score into account to try and give the losing team a fighting chance. True or not, that is what being discussed as game management, and that is not a hockey thing.

That's not game management, and that's definitely not what's happening, it's what fans THINK is happening and what they THINK is game management, but it's not....

And Game management is 100% a hockey thing....

 

[paulhiggins]

That's not game management, and that's definitely not what's happening, it's what fans THINK is happening and what they THINK is game management, but it's not....

And Game management is 100% a hockey thing....

Most of the refs are probably only earning 1/100 to 1/10 of what a hockey player makes so the temptation to increase their wages is in the background. This goes far above referee level and I think the game would benefit with a panel of people reviewing all games for strange calls. The refs could be miked and recorded in every game for league use only. They need to also look closely at the Department of Player Safety. There seems to be little regard from the league to receive feedback from fans about the game and I suspect that "head in the sand" attitude applies to the whole thing, from top to bottom. A housecleaning and retraining in the offseason might be in order but I doubt it will ever happen because the top wants to pretend that all is well.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

That's not game management, and that's definitely not what's happening, it's what fans THINK is happening and what they THINK is game management, but it's not....

And Game management is 100% a hockey thing....

Are you actively ignoring the cited academic studies which conclude refs are more likely to make calls against teams which are winning or already have a favorable power play ratio, or just not gotten around to reading them yet?

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Are you actively ignoring the cited academic studies which conclude refs are more likely to make calls against teams which are winning or already have a favorable power play ratio, or just not gotten around to reading them yet?

100% ignoring them, for real world experience......

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

100% ignoring them, for real world experience......

Good on ya

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Most of the refs are probably only earning 1/100 to 1/10 of what a hockey player makes so the temptation to increase their wages is in the background. This goes far above referee level and I think the game would benefit with a panel of people reviewing all games for strange calls. The refs could be miked and recorded in every game for league use only. They need to also look closely at the Department of Player Safety. There seems to be little regard from the league to receive feedback from fans about the game and I suspect that "head in the sand" attitude applies to the whole thing, from top to bottom. A housecleaning and retraining in the offseason might be in order but I doubt it will ever happen because the top wants to pretend that all is well.

I can guarantee you, officials do not care one iota what fans think....second, who gets to determine what a "strange" call is?

 

[ijuka]

Yep.

I'd consider myself a neutral fan. I often watch NHL just because I like watching hockey, and generally just watch the most even-looking game that happens to be on at a given time. Hence, I'd say that I mostly am not biased when watching. Still, the officiating in NHL is just impossibly bad. Most of the games feel just are distasteful to watch, as obvious penalties that the refs are directly looking at go uncalled.

This is the main reason I've been watching less NHL this season, actually. Most of the games feel fixed.

 

[MNNumbers]

This is the absolute definitive piece of information.
Compare home/away in any situation, and you find that the away team is more likely to go on the PK next.
Compare ahead/behind in score and you find the team that is ahead is more likely to go on the PK next.
Compare (more PK time already vs less PK time already) and you find that the calls make the penalties even out.

This is obviously BAD. It means the refs are adjusting their calls according to the game situation, and it is undeniable.

The problem with this is simple to state:
Hockey is a game in which the team with more energy does better. If you give the team which is losing an encouragement to their energy level, you manipulate the outcome.

How many times does a team which is goal behind early in the 3rd period score on the PP and go on to win the game? Worse, how many times does a PP goal when a team is down by 2 goals turn the momentum and lead to an OT game? Given that the penalty call which put them on the PP is suspect (according to the chart), that means that the refs "game management" manipulates the standings. This affects the financials of the teams in the league because making the playoffs or not can make a big difference in the bottom line at the end of the year.

This is obviously very bad.

It's hard to believe that some of the owners don't think about this.

 

[Jeremy2020]

Game management is not a hockey thing, it's a NHL thing. So you don't have to imagine, you can just look to the rest of the hockey world if you want to know what it looks like.

I'm saying that the "NHL" fans couldn't handle it. Thought that was clear, sorry.