A plague has infested the game of hockey, and has been particularly noticeable this season in the NHL. This plague begins with Andy van Hellemond, and drips down through the league, polluting the sport, and ruining the sport we all love. This demon-spawned plague, ladies and gentleman, is poor officiating.
Now, before I get chastised because people think that using referees as an excuse is lame and weak, I can say honestly that I'm not talking about calls against any team in particular. I'm talking about really bad, inconsistent officiating against EVERY team, in just about EVERY game that I've seen this year. Let me give what is probably the most glaring example of inconsistent officiating that I've seen yet.
Let's start a couple of weeks ago, in Madison Square Garden, with the Flyers visiting the Rangers. The game is tough and hard fought by both teams. In overtime, Theo Fleury charges in on goal on a partial breakaway, and shoots the puck directly into the pads of Roman Cechmanek. Cechmanek makes the save and covers up the puck, as Fleury falls and slides hard directly into Cechmanek. The goalie, and therefore the puck, end up in the net. Referee call: good goal - Rangers win in OT.
Flash forward to Saturday night, February 10th. The Blues are starting a tough weekend series, visiting Colorado. In yet another close game, tied at three with only a few minutes left in the game, a Blue defenseman nearly tackles Dan Hinote of the Avs into the crease. A shot comes in, Brent Johnson makes the save, and the rebound lays in the crease in front of the goalie. Hinote, on his knees just inside the top of the crease, somehow gets his stick on the puck, putting it between Johnson's arm and leg and into the net. Johnson was obviously not obstructed, and by the new rules about the goal crease, this should have been an obvious goal. However, the goal is immediately waved off and there is no replay. The Avs get completely deflated, the announcers are completely baffled, the crowd is enraged, and the game goes on, which the Blues then win in overtime, directly as a result of a completely botched call.
If it seems funny to you how a goalie can get run over and it counts as a goal in one game, and a goalie isn't even touched and the goal is waved off in another, then you understand what I mean. This is only the most blatant example, with calls directly deciding the fate of what can potentially be two very important games in the regular season. However, this is happening in every single game in the NHL, and will continue to happen as long as there is no objective standard that NHL referees have to live up to for every game. Will game tapes now have to be made of officials, so the teams can watch and decide how they should play that night?
Referees are there to maintain control of a game and enforce the rules of hockey. They are NOT there to decide the fate of a game, and the fact that I've already pointed out two instances where this is the case is two times too many. Andy van Hellemond needs to pay some attention to his core of referees, especially now that the owner of a team is out on the ice. I can almost guarantee that Hinote's goal wouldn't have been waved off if it had been a Penguin scoring for just that reason, otherwise the phone would already be ringing in van Hellemond's house with a demand for sanctions against the referee that made the call.
Now to this week's awards:
The Most Underrated Player of the Week Award: This one, for the first time ever, will go out to an entire team. That's right, the Minnesota Wild have been incredibly impressive as of late, winning 6 of their last 9 games, including another big win against the old Minnesota team, the Stars. For a team that wasn't supposed to win very much this year, they're actually floating around the .500 mark at 20-23-8-3. Their 51 points place them ahead of six other teams (Atlanta, Florida, the Rangers and Islanders, Columbus, and Anaheim), and they are currently only 8 points out of the playoffs. Great job to Jacques Lemaire and all the boys up north!
The Outstanding Save of the Week Award: Well, I have to admit that the games I've seen this week haven't been big on defense or goaltending. However, I'm going to give this to six guys, Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek, Martin Brodeur, Roman Cechmanek, Sean Burke, and Evgeni Nabokov. These guys went a long way in proving they were true All-Stars, even though they were pounded in the Skills Competition and the game itself. My heart goes out to you guys for getting hung out to dry and still doing your best to have a good time.
The Best Streak of the Week Award: This one is easy, and belongs to Alexi Kovalev of the Pittsburgh Penguins. After kicking up his production to join the league leaders in goals and points, Kovalev picked up TWO hat tricks in two games to take over the NHL lead in goals. Kovalev by himself is proving that there's more to the Penguins than the Mario and Jags Roadshow.
The "He did WHAT?!" Award: There is going to be another shared award this week, and it goes to Don Van Massenhoven and Marty McSorley. Massenhoven was the official who blatently botched the goal call on Dan Hinote of the Colorado Avalanche (see above for full story). McSorley signed a deal with the Grand Rapids Griffins of the IHL in order to get into game shape for an eventual return to the NHL, after his year long suspension for smacking Donald Brashear in the head. Apparently, his idea of "game shape" was getting into a giant scrum and getting ejected from the game. Way to go, you two - this week goes down in history.
Well, that's all for me this week. Look for me again next week, probably around the 18th, for my next report.
- The Baron
