Anybody Else A Ref?

[sjmay*]

Hamilton

Just down the road eh?

Toronto here

Looking forward to your post game report Thursday night,

I got a shift tonight, if anything interesting happens, I will post it for ya.

 

[ThisIsOilCountry]

hockeygiant and hockeymonkey have some ref gear on clearence, plus check out officialswarehouse.com

I get most of my gear from Ref's Closet.

http://www.refcloset.com/

Thanks Guys, I have checked out both, any they look to have decent stuff but shipping to Canada is the biggest downfall usually at least 20 bucks for international.

To any other canadians, these are some good places I found:
http://www.refstuff.ca/servlet/StoreFront
http://www.thehockeyshop.com/Mercha...TGY&Store_Code=THSSCA&Category_Code=S_Referee
http://refgear.ca/Scripts/default.asp


The cheapest I was able to find was 80 dollars with shipping, so I will probably have to wait until next season to buy some new pants seeing as I am a student.

 

[ThisIsOilCountry]

Just down the road eh?

Toronto here

Looking forward to your post game report Thursday night,

I got a shift tonight, if anything interesting happens, I will post it for ya.

I will be sure to give you an update on how it went!

 

[Slats432]

Third year of Men's Recreational Hockey...reffing the knuckleheads.

80% of the time it is a good time. 20% is dealing with dumb dumbs.

 

[Youreallygotme]

I'm 23, have reffed about 8 years and had overall a great time and made good money. I've reffed up to Midget AAA which is a great challenge, but have also done Beer league which was just for the money - I think I am too young for the old grumpy fat arses to give me any respect lol! I have done the same in soccer and that is a good time too.

 

[ponder]

Reffed part-time many years ago when I was still in high school. Did mostly youth league games. I'd like to think I'd be a much better ref now, but I have no intention of going back to it. Happy just playing in my spare time.

Two tips I did learn from that experience and my subsequent years on the ice as a player:

1) There were times where I wasn't sure what to call in a given situation and hesitated to make a borderline call. If you ever find yourself thinking something deserves to be a penalty but aren't quite sure what to call it, just go with either interference or roughing. Those are basic catch-alls.

2) When a game turns lopsided (7-goal lead, 10 minutes to play) a lot of refs have a tendency to put their whistles away so as to get the game over with faster and get home. If anything, I think in those situations you would be better served to INCREASE the calls you make. If you see a borderline call, blow the whistle anyway. Awarding a power play to either team in a lopsided game won't affect the outcome, but a borderline penalty that goes uncalled in a lopsided game often has the potential to turn the game ugly. You should come down particularly harsh on borderline physical plays like whacking the goalie after the whistle or riding a guy into the boards, even if it's a situation you might not have called in the second period.

A lot of refs seem to think that making calls will make the game drag out. To the contrary, I find that the lopsided games where the refs put their whistles away take longer to finish because you start getting players jousting after every rush, shoving after every stoppage, and a lot more fighting to sort out.

Never done any reffing myself, but as a player I can say that this is an excellent tip. Refs putting away their whistles at any point in the game can quickly lead to a very chippy, out of control game. If a dirty play is penalized by the refs the other team will more or less forget about it, but if no call is made the other team will try to get revenge on the ice.

 

[HC Ref]

So anyways, Anybody got any tips for a noobie ref?

The first game I ever reffed, I remember the feeling of being overwhelmed by how much a referee has to think about during a game!

An excellent tip someone mentioned before is to work on one thing at a time. Also, after every game, it is a good idea to remember any new or unusual situation you encountered, and read up on that particular section of the rule book. It's not like you're going to sit down and read the entire book in one shot. But this way whenever a similar situation happens again, you will be better prepared to face it.

Good luck for your next game, and be sure to come back and let us all know how it went!

 

[HC Ref]

how does one get into reffing? i think i would like to at least look into it. are there any women refs?

I'm not very familiar with USA Hockey, but if it's anything like Canada, there should be excellent opportunities for female refs.

With the continued growth of girls hockey, there is also a greater demand for girls to referee these games (they also use male referees for girls hockey, but they prefer girls whenever possible). Obviously you would be able to officiate both boys and girls, but the great need for female refs at the higher levels of girls hockey provides a great opportunity for you to move up the ranks.

 

[ThisIsOilCountry]

Alright guys, so an update on the game on thursday:
The game went well no big problems, except one small issue arose, a player fell behind the net and was "hurt," they weren't seriously injured so we [the other ref and I] let play continue. During this time the other team had possession, meanwhile the coach of the kid who was hurt was yelling his face off to blow the whistle due to the injured player. I waited until his team gained possession and followed with the whistle outside the zone, because they were in the attacking zone. I feel I did the right thing, but apparently I didn't according to this coach.

 

[SJGoalie32]

Alright guys, so an update on the game on thursday:
The game went well no big problems, except one small issue arose, a player fell behind the net and was "hurt," they weren't seriously injured so we [the other ref and I] let play continue. During this time the other team had possession, meanwhile the coach of the kid who was hurt was yelling his face off to blow the whistle due to the injured player. I waited until his team gained possession and followed with the whistle outside the zone, because they were in the attacking zone. I feel I did the right thing, but apparently I didn't according to this coach.

Yeah, I dealt with that once, too. Felt miserable about it afterward.

What level were you reffing? Was it house league or a competitive tournament with travelling teams?

I've gone back and forth on that play in my head over the years, and here's what I've finally decided upon:

First, you did call the play correctly according to the letter of the rule book.

If this were a competitive tournament or something, I'd say just go ahead and stick to the letter of the rulebook......although you may wish to discuss it with your supervisor at your rink and/or write a letter to the local governing body for clarification on this rule.

However, if this is a rec league for youths......just blow the whistle.

You frequently see cases in the NHL when a player takes a slapshot to the head and drops that the referee immediately blows the whistle. Sometimes, he doesn't even wait until the player has finished dropping to the ice much less waiting for the other team to have possession of the puck before blowing the play dead.

When dealing with player safety at the rec league level, particularly with youths, I'd suggest just erring on the side of player safety......even if the letter of the rulebook says otherwise.

If you feel like the player's faking it (ex.: he bounces right back up afterwards) you could always assess an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the fact. Same if it seems to keep happening in future games. If there's a breakaway, maybe you could just let the rush finish, but then blow the play dead once more players get back into the zone and they start passing it around regardless of possession.

Here's how I see it--5 years from now, nobody will remember one random whistle that stopped play and prematurely squashed one scoring opportunity in a mid-season youth rec league game......but I still vividly remember laying against the end boards crumpled in pain on the ice with a broken ankle praying that the guy winding up for a slapshot would be able to get it on goal rather than missing the net wide and hitting me (it was just a pickup game).

Err on the side of safety. Especially with kids.

 

[Gino 14]

Alright guys, so an update on the game on thursday:
The game went well no big problems, except one small issue arose, a player fell behind the net and was "hurt," they weren't seriously injured so we [the other ref and I] let play continue. During this time the other team had possession, meanwhile the coach of the kid who was hurt was yelling his face off to blow the whistle due to the injured player. I waited until his team gained possession and followed with the whistle outside the zone, because they were in the attacking zone. I feel I did the right thing, but apparently I didn't according to this coach.

When reffing young kids and lower levels, always blow the whistle when a kid is down, regardless of what the rules state. I always err on the side of the kid being injured more seriously than they acts. I don't care if the other team has a scoring opportunity or not, with little kids you don't want to take a chance. If either coach gives you grief all you have to tell them is the kid appeared hurt, end of discussion. If you want a crowd to get out of hand fast, leave an injured kid on the ice and then try to calm them back down, you won't make that mistake too many times.

 

[sjmay*]

Agreed,

With kids, just blow it down, both coaches will eventually understand why.

Next time that happens, blow the whistle, go to the kid, make sure he is ok, signal the coach to come out, when he comes out to check on the kid, go to the other bench and explain why you blew the whistle even though his team had possession, 99% of the time you won't have a problem, the 1% you do, light him up like a Christmas tree, and that's the last problem you will have with that particular coach.

Having said that, did an "A" game last night, last game of the night, fast pace, most of the guys played juniors, college, pro etc, from the drop of the puck I was yelling "no stick, no stick guys" to keep the sticks from being too active, 10min into the game, kid tries to pull a stick check but instead of popping it up, he lifts and lifts, and lifts, stick comes near the guy's head, doesn't hit him, but I call it anyways to let the guys know to knock it off. Team I called it against was ok with it, team I called it for was ok with it, until it happened to them, and then it was just a ****fest, penalty after penalty after penalty, and they were up 7-2, it was a disgrace...I got accused of being too safe lol.

 

[Rocko604]

I reffed for one season, when I was 16. I couldn't play the first half of the season due to post-concussion syndrome, and didn't want to play house league, so I took up reffing instead. 12 years later, I'm looking at going back to it. I'll be 28 when the season start next year, and I just know I'll get weird looks when my partners are half my age.

 

[Gino 14]

I reffed for one season, when I was 16. I couldn't play the first half of the season due to post-concussion syndrome, and didn't want to play house league, so I took up reffing instead. 12 years later, I'm looking at going back to it. I'll be 28 when the season start next year, and I just know I'll get weird looks when my partners are half my age.

I've had partners 30 years younger than me, ain't no big thing.