IS there a solution to the NHL's ref problem?

[dukeofjive]

Its a league problem, the whole game management to keep the scores close or penalties equal.

I also think that certain players have a target on there backs with the refs. Gallagher on the habs is one of them.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Of course criticism of officials by people in the league has always happened but it is happening much more frequently than ever before, it’s basically a weekly occurrence at this point. Show me where in the 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s the league had to release memos threatening fines because the criticism was happening on such a broad scale.

And I never said the NHL had an officiating problem, in fact I’m saying the opposite. The NHL wants the officiating exactly how it is.

Social media at its finest.

 

[kwichang]

Shouldn't Elon's brain chip take care of that?

Yep! Some method is needed for the diving and embellishment - sheesh it’s easily 50%+ of the complaining in these forums

The beauty of RefGPT is that the league could still retain control of the “penalty sensitivity” setting . . . Like a volume or gain knob it could be dialed down for the playoffs!

 

[Grinner]

They make coaches and players available to the press often in order to ask what was that about
Why not the official's? The networks ought to insist
The flipside is we thought we hot canned answers from the players/coaches

 

[dukedukowski]

It starts with the league stopping the mandate for its official's to stop managing games and series in order to help try keeping it close. It was a joke that the league fired an official for saying it out loud to be caught on a microphone

Come on, Put 2 and 2 together.
Keep it close? No ,they outright decide who wins.

 

[seafoam]

Do they have a single official not from North America? Also no females.

It’s an old boys club, what do you expect.

 

[GOilers88]

And by game management you mean making calls based on the score, or balance of previous calls, rather than on merit? That’s a huge problem!



As much as I hate the league I actually don’t think it’s malicious here. I think it’s just incompetent. Compare it to baseball where home plate umpires used to have pet strike zones, like their own little brand or something. MLB didn’t want it that way, they just didn’t give a shit. Eventually people got so fed up with it that they instituted the reviews they have now. They don’t have any automation, but they DO get their calls reviewed after the game. The pet strike zones are gone. Players will still argue a call, but you don’t see the broad frustration there is with the NHL.



What this ignores is that many calls are marginal. At what point does a hook become egregious enough to call? What about a trip? I don’t want every marginal infraction to get called, I just want a consistent standard that isn’t affected by score or prior calls.



That’s not really what happens at all though. Fans complain much more about the consistency of calls. They almost always refer back to a previous call that was more/less egregious than the call that just was/wasn’t made.

But it’s much easier to just call people babies and pretend there’s no problem.

They are babies though. Venture into any teams GDT and you’ll see people talking about just wanting consistency. Then their team gets called for something and it’s a joke call. Then when the opposing team gets called for something it’s usually a good call, with the premise being “well we got called for something else so this is okay”. The entire argument of only wanting consistency because one thing was a called and something else wasn’t is pretty contradictory too. Just because one thing doesn’t get called doesn’t suddenly mean something that does get called is a joke. You almost never see people here complain about calls that go their teams way. People aren’t hitting the mains and going on tirades on behalf of an opposing team getting penalties that they themselves go off on a tirade for when their own team gets called for it.

Game management is definitely a thing, and it’s a problem. But even if it were to disappear, you’d still have people bitching when their team takes penalties and saying nothing when they get powerplays.

 

[north21]

Can't be that hard to call a consistent game from pre-seaons to cup finals, have the refs call the game but they can't see everything when the game is this fast, have a review committee in a booth that are part of the crew able to overrule to the calls and/or discuess the plays and overturn the stupid ones, might not solve everything but they kind of do that now for goals and not that hard to expand it to penalties.

 

[Nunymare]

I'm pretty sure the NHL reviews calls from each game and lets the refs know what they want out of their next game. The semi-famous "nightly email from the department of officiating." It's a thing.

Yep - from this article: What it's like to be an NHL playoff referee

There is accountability for NHL officials, believe it or not, even if they’re now shielded from reporters and never hung out to dry by the league. There’s a logger watching each game in the league’s situation room, jotting down notes on every penalty — and every perceived missed call — throughout the game. Through a program called Video Cast, these logs are available to each ref, updated in real time, on their laptops either in the locker room between periods or back at the hotel after a game. The cleaner your logs, the more high-profile games you’re likely to officiate. It’s a meritocracy — in theory, at least.

Every ref goes over every entry after every game. And it’s not always a pleasant experience.

 

[nucksflailtogether]

Unpopular opinion: There is no officiating problem, just a problem of crybaby fans with 6 angles of HD slo-mo replays, social media to go cry on and an inability to accept that their favorite team wasn't good enough.

Yep.

 

[TEH FIRST NOEL]

It's simple.

We, uh, kill the Batman.

 

[Sports2]

sharks under the ice and if a call is overturned by coaches challenge they cut a hole in center ice and throw the ref in

 

[Viqsi]

sharks under the ice and if a call is overturned by coaches challenge they cut a hole in center ice and throw the ref in

That's going to be awkward to administer fairly if San Jose gets back into the playoffs.

 

[TEH FIRST NOEL]

There is no reffing problem in the NHL beyond game management. Fans are just babies.

yes, yes, what you wrote is absolutely right. the nhl, a multimillion (billion?) dollar business that consists of a sport game in which betting is part (illegally and legally) would never have officiating problems due to fixing games. moreover, the guys, who work as refs, would never be fallible, imperfect (e.g. mistakes, emotional,) exercise bias and more.

never.

 

[dukedukowski]

sharks under the ice and if a call is overturned by coaches challenge they cut a hole in center ice and throw the ref in

Stop watching James Bond movies

 

[Viqsi]

Stop watching James Bond movies

Sharks with FRIKKIN' LASER BEAMS.

 

[Furio]

Texas Colin Campbell is the reason

 

[Ducks DVM]

The issue is official bias towards certain players/teams, “game management”, a toothless DOPS, a refusal to properly fine/suspend players who dive and embellish zero consistency from team to team from period to period (much less from the regular season to the playoffs), and most importantly a lack of qualified officials. Anyone remember just how much fun it was the last time the zebras went on strike?

 

[HTFN]

All of this seems skewed towards, like, missed trips and hooks and penalties you just can't keep up with. That's fine, but we're in the "reviewing majors on suspendable hits and reducing them" era of incompetence right now. If you have the time to get the call and you still can't get the call, you're not even doing the best you can do.

 

[Chet Manley]

I'm with many in saying the problem is game management. Missed calls and misinterpretations will happen no matter how good the refs. These guys are the best in the world at this yet many fans see them as inadequate.

The only way to get the calls better is with technology. Perhaps go back to one ref on the ice while moving the other one into a stationary observer and video/tech review role. Not saying I want that to happen, just don't see how refs can get better in the current configuration.

 

[chirrrs]

If you've watched a lot of hockey, even just over the last few years, the game management is extremely evident. When you've watched enough games, you know exactly what I'm talking about. One team is up a couple goals and you just know it's a matter of time before the penalties start rolling in. Especially if the trailing team was recently penalized and is now "owed" a makeup call. When it gets so predictable that you can just feel it coming within minutes if not seconds, it really detracts from the game.

I wish I could go online and make live bets putting money on upcoming calls, I feel like I could retire early.

 

[canuckster19]

They need to change what the punishment for certain penalties are to eliminate the perception of game management.

A lot of hooks and interference plays are not in my opinion worth teams getting an increased opportunity to score a goal in an environment where it’s difficult enough already to score.

Make a lot of penalties worth the same as an icing call. And have automatic ejections after a certain number of infractions so it’s not abused by players.

 

[Drury_Sakic]

I am all on board with a slighly looser rule book in the playoffs, meaning that 50-50 calls maybe go towards no call.

I am also, with limits, ok with refs simply not calling anything but obvious calls.


I am not ok with the “balancing of calls” that refs do. If one team takes a majority of penalties on the standard that ref team is working off of, that is on them. There should be zero pressure to balance out the calls on officials.

Additionally, I would love to see more coincidental penalties called and/or calling one team for one penalty and another for 2 in a scrum.

Keeping the game competitive, balanced, fair is not the job of the officials. A consistent standard of enforcement and keeping players safe is.

 

[NorthStar4Canes]

It goes something like this...

"I hate game management and makeup calls. I demand consistency!"

Game on. Team is chasing, getting beat, starts taking those hooking penalties, getting sloppy with the hits and sticks. Penalized more than the team that isn't.

"G*^&^**ed f&**^*ng Refs are handing them the game! Call it evenly ref you m^&&%&%&ers!!"

Gets on social media and pounds out demands that something be done about the "worst ever in history" officiating.

Such consistency, as predictable as the run rising.