"Diving" after getting high-sticked?

[Reckless Abandon*]

No good referee is going to "caution the other team" based on what a player tells him for things like this. The referee is not being fair if he does that. If I'm the coach of a team being "cautioned" by a referee simply because the other team's captain told him something, I'm not happy about it.

The only time I've ever talked to a coach about something the other team has told me was regarding alleged racial slurs. It wasn't a warning because none of us officials heard anything, but rather a piece of advice to the coach that he should make sure his players are keeping their mouths shut. I did that favour for the captain who raised the issue only after making him a deal that in order to keep it fair, that he tell his players the same thing I would tell the other bench about keeping their mouths shut.

Again, referees never see everything. The ONLY answer I can give a player who tells me that something happened to him is, "if it happens again and I see it, I'll call it". Nothing more can be said or done. I can't tell a player that I will watch for something or keep an eye on a certain player because doing that takes my attention away from the rest of the game. I'm not out there to look for penalties to call, and I'm not out there to avoid calling them either. My job as a referee is to react to what I see happen.



Ok. Do that. If I can confirm with my linesmen that you didn't get hit in the throat, guess who is getting the penalty? If I can't confirm that with my linesmen, and you're out there playing your next shift, guess who is likely not getting a call for the rest of the game?

So you are going to not call a potential stick to the throat. If your lineman wasn't sure what would you do? You look like a fool now for blowing the play dead and not calling anything.

 

[Stripes]

In the context of the game though, I'm a competitive player and I saw it as an opportunity to get my team back into the game with a power play.

That's why they wrote the diving rule. It's just so tough for referees to actually pick it out to call it.

 

[Headcoach]

Hey everyone, I play in one league that has some beginners that don't know how to control their sticks. With one team in particular, both times I've played them I've been unnecessarily high-sticked just skating through the neutral zone.

I wear a full cage, but both times I exaggerated the play by grabbing my mask and letting out a painful yell. Obviously, it didn't hurt, and I also wanted to draw a penalty. Without a cage, it would have been bad though.

Is that unsportsmanlike? I think those kids should learn from the penalties to control their sticks, especially since other people don't wear any shields.

Well, a lot of times you see this because the coach taught this to his players. Is this something you picked up, or did your coach teach you this? Even though it's a good way to get the man advantage, I don't think referees are going to make the call. They are smarter then that.

My favorite thing to see is when a player glances a goalie and the goalie does a tumble and the stick goes flying in the air like he just got hit by a Mac truck. It only makes him look stupid.

So on that note...don't do it.

It kind of reminds me of Soccer and the "Magic Stretcher"! I love to watch them roll around on the playing field, the Magic Stretcher comes out, they place him on the thing, cart him over to the side, and Presto, he's up running around.

Head coach

 

[Stripes]

So you are going to not call a potential stick to the throat. If your lineman wasn't sure what would you do? You look like a fool now for blowing the play dead and not calling anything.

I would be blowing play dead because of the player on the ice grabbing his throat. If my hand isn't in the air for a penalty, it's then up to my linesmen to either tell me something happened, nothing happened and he's faking it, or that they didn't see it, in which case play is simply blown dead to let the player (who may or may not be injured) off the ice. If that makes me look like a fool, it would only be in another fool's eyes.

And no, I'm not calling a potential stick to the throat. I call what I see, or what my linesmen see if it's an infraction they are allowed to notify me about. I don't call what may have potentially happened, that I did not see.

 

[RobertKron]

You guys are right. Diving after a high-stick is lame and I'm not going to do it anymore. (I've only done it twice and I actually apologized to the offender before the next face-off.)

In the context of the game though, I'm a competitive player and I saw it as an opportunity to get my team back into the game with a power play. It's obvious that NHL players overreact to high-sticks since it's a guaranteed minor, but then again, rec league isn't NHL.

I'm glad you've come to this conclusion. The rec-league diver is probably the only player more obnoxious than the rec-league agitator or the rec-league enforcer.

 

[RobertKron]

I typically don't like it when refs call high sticking on cages for that purpose, because in my league everyone wears cages, but there are the odd times when it isn't a harmless hit in the cage...I've had the wire in my cage broken to the point where it cut my face, I've had my helmet lifted, etc.

The ref just needs to call it when it becomes forceful. However, with some people not wearing cages, that's another story. That should be called for sure.

No. Just no. Calling any stick to the head, intentional or not, encourages players to keep their sticks the hell away from peoples' heads. Even if it's an all-cage league, the players might play in another league where guys aren't wearing cages, and also it's not like the throat is very far away from the cage. It's not like major injuries only come from intentional, forceful high sticks.