Some venting on the NHL's Officiating and Suspension Ruling

[richied98]

Before I start this, please know that I'm not a wings fan, a Kronwall fan, a chicago fan, a havlat fan, or a fan of the NHL referees as well as Colin Campbell.

In a previous post in this section of the forum I mentioned how it appears that Referees in the NHL call penalties based on the reaction of the victim of the play. Don't believe me? Let's look at example #1 - High sticking. If a player is caught with a high stick, this is a 2 minute penalty, unless the player draws blood, then making it a 4 minute double minor. Yes, we are all familiar with this ruling, but do you ever stop to think about it? Many times a player is caught with a vicious high stick and it leaves a nasty mark but no blood. 2 minutes is called. Sometimes a harmless stick comes up and clips someone in the mouth, where us humans bleed easy...bang 4 minute penalty. Players are often seen HOPING to be bleeding. Announcers and analysts mock this ruling and its just one unfair officiating practice in the NHL.

Let's move on to the most recent example.

Kronwall levels Havlat. Clean hit. Maybe his feet left the ground, but as a neutral member of this forum (and more of a fan of chicago over detroit) I believe this was a clean well timed hit. Havlat goes down hard and is dazed. The referees feel its fair to give Kronwall 5 and a game. It was very unfortunate for Havlat, but the puck hit an edge on the wall and slowed down, the puck was in his feet near his stick when he was hit. It was not far behind him, the puck was there. IF Havlat had got up right away and sakted around with no injury the referees would not give a penalty. There would NOT have been a call if Havlat was fine. This is where I get simply furious with the NHL.

The NHL and the in game referees need to look at the ACTION of the player, not the RESULT to the victim. While Colin Campbell should review the tape to look at every angle (injury included), the in game referees need to base their opinion on THE ACTION not the injury.

Many times a player may already have an injury and not know it, then take a hit and it will instigate the injury. Other times players are hit from behind and it should be a 2 minute boarding call, but because they are injured it becomes a 5 minute major. The league needs to find some validity in its officiating. Players never know what to expect, and the game has become very random in how it deals with calls.

How can Milan Lucic and Dan Carcillo receive suspensions and Scott walker does not? I'm not a Lucic or Carcillo fan, nor a Walker fan, it's just simple to see that the league slipped up.

I didn't think Walker deserved a suspension, but if he didn't get one than how can Lucic and Carcillo get one?


I completely agree when a player uses their stick as a weapon, or is blatantly and forcefully trying to injure another player that it deserves a mass suspension. Steve Downie deserved his 20 game suspension, and Mcsorley deserved his lengthy suspension for swinging his stick at Brashear. Those penalties you can look at and see the intent to injure. I'm more upset about how these REGULAR hockey plays turn into suspensions because the other player is unfortunately injured.

I'm sure this will lead to others commenting, and possibly debating with me. I'm not here to disagree with anyone or start some sort of confrontation. IF you are a wings or chicago fan I ask you to hold your comments because you are not unbiased in this situation. Just looking for people who are neutral.

[CSSports]

The NHL and the in game referees need to look at the ACTION of the player, not the RESULT to the victim. While Colin Campbell should review the tape to look at every angle (injury included), the in game referees need to base their opinion on THE ACTION not the injury.

I agree 100% - but until they change the rule, its not the referee's fault for calling/not calling the penalty if thats what the rules are.....
I also agree the rule is a joke as some players even bite their lip trying to draw blood...sad part is HOPING to draw blood like you said....
As for suspensions - Tey should look at all possible angles and decide the intent to injure based on the action....Not the player....if someone swung a stick to hurt someone, I dont care if it was Avery or Crosby...should have a system in place to punish them the same......1st offense is this # of games, 2nd is this...etc....

Either that or just suspend them Minimum the # of games that player they hurt is out....so in Bertuzzi's case, he should have played another game...as it ended Moore playing career...it should have ended Bertuzzi's.....

Just my $.02

[richied98]

I like your theory and your suggestions. Thanks for adding to this.

Very good response!

[zunato]

Being a Chicago fan I am not going to comment on the Kronwell hit.

There are two penalties when called or not called the bug me.
1) Off setting minors for tripping and diving. Start calling only the diving and players will stop doing it.
2) Interference.
Offence dumps the puck in, d-man clearly stand up the wingers going to the puck with the puck 10-15 feet behind the d-man. NO CALL.
Winger shoots the puck around the boards and runs into the d-man who is going for the puck. PENALTY ON THE D-MAN.

Just something the NHL needs to get all the refs on the same page.

[dahabsfan]

Totally agree, the officiating is really starting to take away from the true play of the game. Once again for anyone who thinks the Kronwall hit was dirty



No elbow, feet on the ice, Havlat playing the puck and getting destroyed. Time to put the skirts on these fellas if it gets much softer.

[richied98]

Hey, this is nothing against Havlat, he's a great player, and I do respect him although he was pretty dirty against my Flyers when he was with Ottawa (but again I respect him, and think he's a great skilled player).

The league is making it soft, not the players. It's not Havlats fault that he got injured. Clean hard hits injure people. Think of all the Stevens hits that would be called now. IF Scott Stevens was around today, the refs would find a way to give him 5 minutes and a game because someone left the ice injured.

The game has changed. I understand why it has, but it needs to keep clean hits IN THE GAME. Hitting is part of the game that goes back a century, so why take out a foundation of teh sport?

[CSSports]

There are two penalties when called or not called the bug me.
1) Off setting minors for tripping and diving. Start calling only the diving and players will stop doing it.
.

This has got to be the stupidest rule in the NHL.....
If the player was diving (faking the infraction, How does the other guy get a penalty????
If player "A" trips player "B", the Player "A" should get a penalty....
If Player "B" fakes the trip, then player "B: should get the only penalty because he faked it which means there was no trip....

I am with you on this - 100% stupid call to give both players a penalty on this...

[Cerialthriller]

Here is the thing. I stated this in another thread. There was an Interference call on the play. Now you can argue if it was interference on not, he didn't touch the puck yet, but it was very close to him. Regardless, an interference penalty was called. Now, when a penalty occurs, and there is an injury on the play, it is automatically a 5minute + match penalty. The fact of the hit being dirty or clean is irrelevant in this call because the refs deemed him an illegal target of a hit since they determined he had not played the puck yet.

[hockeydad2]

as a Penguin fan watching these playoffs, i have seen my share of calls for & against, called or not called or blown or not blown but as a long time fan of the game, what do we really expect from refs when we are the only sport where fighting(no matter what ur opinion of it is) is still legal, tolerated & actually not even frowned on.......of course that may change when somone gets hurt real bad the same way as someone getting hurt on these suspect calls.....

[richied98]

Here is the thing. I stated this in another thread. There was an Interference call on the play. Now you can argue if it was interference on not, he didn't touch the puck yet, but it was very close to him. Regardless, an interference penalty was called. Now, when a penalty occurs, and there is an injury on the play, it is automatically a 5minute + match penalty. The fact of the hit being dirty or clean is irrelevant in this call because the refs deemed him an illegal target of a hit since they determined he had not played the puck yet.

Is that really the rule? Maybe I missed it, but I didn't know that an INJURY causes a 5 minuteu and a match penalty. That's just terrible, how awful is that???

That's about the worst rule this game has if thats really the case.

The league needs to look at the ACTION of the player, and not the result. Injuries can be caused by any things. Sometimes its by a ferocious hit that is MEANT TO DO HARM, and other times it just happens. Sometimes a player will go and MEAN TO DO HARm but NOTHING happens to the victim of the hit, so there is no penalty. That's what im saying is unfair.

Let's say a player is TRYING to hurt someone but fails. Many times there will be no penalty. But in this case, Kronwall just made a great hockey play, and got penalized for it. The game is bs.