News Article: Media call out on dangerous hit on McDavid

[Tobias Kahun]

Thing about McDavid is that he doesn't have to toss that elbow, because he's a good hitter and can generate more speed then anyone in a short burst. If he just blew guys up (like Sorenson in the playoffs) more often, then they might have to look for him more on the ice

That's a beautiful play. I would love to see McDavid do that, if you want to keep target him, enjoy eating through a straw.

 

[BlackDogg]

Don't even think this is a thread on the mains. I missed this last night and didn't even know it occured until reading this thread.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

That's a beautiful play. I would love to see McDavid do that, if you want to keep target him, enjoy eating through a straw.

I agree, the only problem is the only thing the NHL pretends to take seriously is hits to the head, so that will become "a thing" if he does it.

This is why my go to for guys who need it, like Matthew Tkachuk, is stick out the old knee and shred baby shred. It's the kind of injury a guy can "comeback" from, but it will hamper him going forward, with any of the CTE.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Don't even think this is a thread on the mains. I missed this last night and didn't even know it occured until reading this thread.

Yeah, if it were any other team, ANY other team, there would be thread.

 

[Little Fury]

IMO, everyone misses the forest for the trees as far as what's going on with the reffing.

The reason they chose not make some calls where McDavid and other star players are concerned is they have a weird mandate, spoken or unspoken, to police the parity in every game. They don't want to let one player draw like 4 calls a game because that would favor one team.

Every once in a while they'll get a new mandate from the league to focus on one specific thing (obstruction, slashing, goalie interference) and they'll go crazy on that for like 2 months before everything just reverts to the mean. But as long as they have the freedom to put their whistles away one day, call everything the next, do make-up calls and dictate the temp. of each game, this is going to stay a problem. It's not about some kind of axe their grinding.

And the league can't do that much about it as long as ex-refs are put in charge of officiating and the NHLOA successfully negotiates for referee freedom (the reason they review some of their own calls on ipads is because the OA didn't want refs to lose their say to the war room).

Great post. Kerry Fraser opined on the hit today on twitter and his response spoke volumes:



The idea that the refs are responsible for ensuring the flow of the game needs to go. I have no idea where that comes from.

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

Just complete incompetence from this ref. Staring at the play right in front of him can't get any more obvious to call it.

Hitch probably made it worse when he called out the refs.

thats just more evidence that the refs and league are incompetent.

if the league said something about it than the coach wouldn't have to.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Great post. Kerry Fraser opined on the hit today on twitter and his response spoke volumes:



The idea that the refs are responsible for ensuring the flow of the game needs to go. I have no idea where that comes from.

What a joke that is, their number 1 job is to enforce the f***ing rule book and keep the players safe.

 

[Lacaar]

The Refs are there to manage the game. This crap about protecting the players is a load of crap.
Fact is the score was heavily in favor of the Oilers and that was the deciding factor on whether to call a penalty or not on the play.
If there Oilers were trailing I believe Anaheim gets a penalty.

So long as that is the modus operandi of the refs. They will never be able to protect the players with the rule book.

 

[TheRebuild]

That hit was stupid, but not intentional from the play, so maybe that's why the ref didn't call it. I was watching it on the Ducks feed and the announcers actually thought that was a "good" hit, one of them was like "Lindholm lays out McDavid!" I'm like "Really... jabbing someone in the back with a stick so that they go head first into the boards is 'laying someone out' now?"

 

[soothsayer]

Great post. Kerry Fraser opined on the hit today on twitter and his response spoke volumes:



The idea that the refs are responsible for ensuring the flow of the game needs to go. I have no idea where that comes from.

I get the sense that it comes from the refs themselves. Good for Fraser for writing what he did. But he's made several disturbing comments on Gregor's show about the role of referees as he sees it, namely, that the game needs to be played on the referee's terms. To me, that suggests that referees view themselves as extensions of the rule book, rather than applicators of it. In other words, referees play an active role in determining how the game is played. Most fans don't agree with the referees' view of their own role in the game.

 

[Shathar]

The Refs are there to manage the game. This crap about protecting the players is a load of crap.
Fact is the score was heavily in favor of the Oilers and that was the deciding factor on whether to call a penalty or not on the play.
If there Oilers were trailing I believe Anaheim gets a penalty.

So long as that is the modus operandi of the refs. They will never be able to protect the players with the rule book.

This, unfortunately, is the truth. A big part of their responsibility is game management. As much as we hate it, it's there. Management is there whenever there is money on the line for a product.

 

[Little Fury]

I get the sense that it comes from the refs themselves. Good for Fraser for writing what he did. But he's made several disturbing comments on Gregor's show about the role of referees as he sees it, namely, that the game needs to be played on the referee's terms. To me, that suggests that referees view themselves as extensions of the rule book, rather than applicators of it. In other words, referees play an active role in determining how the game is played. Most fans don't agree with the referees' view of their own role in the game.

I dunno, I think it's a hockey culture thing to a large extent (how many time shave you heard someone like Cherry say "let the players play!") plus the league itself probably figures casual fans will be turned off by a game where it's just a parade to the box. Regardless, they need to change the way they train refs and how they see the game and their own role.

 

[Hopelesslucicfan]

I get the sense that it comes from the refs themselves. Good for Fraser for writing what he did. But he's made several disturbing comments on Gregor's show about the role of referees as he sees it, namely, that the game needs to be played on the referee's terms. To me, that suggests that referees view themselves as extensions of the rule book, rather than applicators of it. In other words, referees play an active role in determining how the game is played. Most fans don't agree with the referees' view of their own role in the game.

I'm sure it's not something they just decided to take one themselves.

I remember reading a while back how the NHL encourages refs to allow hooks and holds to a certain extent to slow the game down, because they attribute the concussions issues to game speed.

Refs should be responsible for calling the rules according to the book as they see it and nothing more. The only judgement calls should be who to pull out of a scrum if the games getting out of hand, intent to injure, and unsportsmanlike. Everything else could be called by a third party ref in the pressbox or something.

 

[Hopelesslucicfan]

I dunno, I think it's a hockey culture thing to a large extent (how many time shave you heard someone like Cherry say "let the players play!") plus the league itself probably figures casual fans will be turned off by a game where it's just a parade to the box. Regardless, they need to change the way they train refs and how they see the game and their own role.

This is a major issue in itself. I hate that hockey fans would rather the refs stop calling things, than have the players learn to play within the rules.

 

[joestevens29]

The players should hire whoever is the head of the union for the refs. They seem to have a better agreement.

 

[t0nedeff]

If players/coaches are forced to do after game interviews where they have to answer questions about their play/coaching than why the hell are these idiots in zebra colors not forced to do the same thing. I'm tired of the refs being above that shit when no one has ever bought tickets to a game or flipped the channel to a hockey game to check out the reffing it makes no sense that the people who bring in all the money for the organizations and the NHL are subjected to having to go through that shit and the refs get to be dumbasses time and again and never have to answer anything about their own performances on the ice.

 

[joestevens29]

If players/coaches are forced to do after game interviews where they have to answer questions about their play/coaching than why the hell are these idiots in zebra colors not forced to do the same thing. I'm tired of the refs being above that **** when no one has ever bought tickets to a game or flipped the channel to a hockey game to check out the reffing it makes no sense that the people who bring in all the money for the organizations and the NHL are subjected to having to go through that **** and the refs get to be dumbasses time and again and never have to answer anything about their own performances on the ice.

Better union.

At the end of the day this has been an issue forever. Why haven't teams and ownership demanded more?

We do know they do a lot of internal reviews and such, but at what point is that pointless?

 

[soothsayer]

I dunno, I think it's a hockey culture thing to a large extent (how many time shave you heard someone like Cherry say "let the players play!") plus the league itself probably figures casual fans will be turned off by a game where it's just a parade to the box. Regardless, they need to change the way they train refs and how they see the game and their own role.

In my head the bold text you quoted was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. There's no doubt greater forces are involved than just the beliefs of the referees. But I would argue that referees are a major force in maintaining the notion that officials are expected to actively influence the game. I'm reminded of when referees flexed their collective egos when video replay was being considered for reviewing offsides and goalie interference after goals. A number of people reported that referees were against the use of such video review at least partly because it reduced their professional autonomy.

 

[frag2]

You wideman them, most of them deserve it.

If they don't really care about the safety of the players, their safety should be of no concern to the players either.

If there ever was a time for Lucic to finally make himself 'useful' to the team...

 

[Soli]

Great post. Kerry Fraser opined on the hit today on twitter and his response spoke volumes:



The idea that the refs are responsible for ensuring the flow of the game needs to go. I have no idea where that comes from.

From this it sounds like NHL refs have the same training as WWE refs.

So hockey is scripted as well eh.

 

[pabst blue ribbon]

NHL refs prefer unwritten rules to actual written rules

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

wow.

im surprised one of the troglodytes crawled out of a hole to whisper something through the iron curtain on NHL officiating practices.

 

[Jumptheshark]

NHL with public relations fiasco over non-call on latest ambush of Connor McDavid



I was stunned when I saw this last night and no call. The win didn't stop the media spotlight on the hit which is important because it shows that this is not just happening when the oilers lose. If non-oiler media are finally calling it out, then NHL has to step in and do something about it if they want to be taken seriously as a first rate league.

90% of those listed have ties to the local media or work for the local guys

9/11 I would classify has "home media" either due to actually working locally or doing something daily on local shows

 

[Stoneman89]

The stupid thing is that near the end of the game the exact same hit was done to Reider and it was immediately called. I have no idea what a penalty is anymore.

 

[Ducksauce]

This hasn't been called a few times this season. It reminds me of the Caggiula hit on Gaudreau which also wasn't called. Not sure what it's going to take.