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Back when I reffed I would sometimes point at the offending player with my unraised arm until I had a good handle on who the penalty was going to be on. When I blew the whistle I would full stop, definitely point at the offending player and with a loud voice call out player number, jersey color and infraction with appropriate hand signal.

Howdy, So... Been occasionally reffing here and there. Slowly getting better at stuff, still have quite a ways to go. A thing I particularly suck at is recognizing a penalty. And I suck even more about mentally marking and remembering who it was on. Same thing in terms of "who scored and assisted?", but the adult league I ref with doesn't track that, so I sidestep that problem. I'm pretty comfortable with positioning now in a 2 ref system. Starting to be better about watching the players vs. just the puck. Anyway, I reffed my first upper level game last night. B League game here in Pgh, which is the highest level we have in the organization I play/ref with. The guy that runs the league was out of ref options and he talked me into doing it despite me not thinking it would be a good idea. I'm glad he did... It was quite a bit of fun. The play was a LOT faster, so I was skating more and harder which was great. It wasn't so fast that I couldn't keep up, but was fast enough that I stayed warmed up and loose vs. the lower level games I've been doing where you don't skate as much and then tighten up some. It was also a lot easier to read the play, since players typically made decent passes / didn't fumble fuck the puck. So, for instance, if I was at the blue line and a defensive player had the puck on their stick without much pressure exiting the zone, I could cheat off the line since they were unlikely to turn the puck over stupidly. I definitely needed to be better about not being in the way... With the players moving faster and able to change directions much quicker, I needed to be better about reading where they were going and more quickly getting out of their way. It wasn't horrifically bad (I don't think), but for sure there were too many times that a player had to abruptly change direction to avoid me (usually away from the play, when their attention was up ice, not so much where they were going). Also need to be better about dropping the puck. In the lower leagues they're not as keyed into any movement of my arm at all. So I adapted to that and all, but frequently when I'd drop the puck it wouldn't land flat since I was dropping it in one motion from my waist line and I'm just not very good at that yet. I blew one covering the puck call pretty badly... I was on the side of the net at home base, the puck/offensive player went to the net and the goalie was down covering that side. I got screened just a touch and when that player moved through I saw the goalie down with blocker and stick cemented to the side of the net like he was covering the puck, so I blew it dead... With the whistle sounding just as the puck / player emerge into my vision from the other side of the net. Sigh. The guys seemed pretty understanding about it, which was nice. Anyway... Despite some serious misgivings I had a good time doing it. We'll see if I get any feedback from the other ref / teams via the league organizer as to just how awful I was but I'd do it again for sure, if they wanted me to. Mark

Surprised to see that most people feel that way. The USA 'tender wasn't given an legitimate opportunity to play the rebound due to the collision caused by the Finnish forward. Its a tough call to make but the right call regardless what level and/or rulebook you're using for ice hockey. I feel for the Fins even though I root for USA but as a referee, that was absolutely the right call. I'm more curious as to why the review took so long.

I just found out that there’s a chance I might have a recurrence of my liver disease PSC Well I’m going to have to go in for a procedure. A PTC (Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography) which basically means I’m going to have a tube(s) to drain my liver for 2-6 months. Last time I had to go through this was before my second transplant. It’s not a guarantee that it’s a recurrence of the PSC but because of my history the doctors think it’s more likely that not it’s back. I’ve felt extremely fortunate to have received two transplants & to get a second and third chance at life. But right now the thought of going through all this again seems so difficult. Especially the drains put in my liver. The last time it was extremely painful. I ended up being put on fentanyl patches. That was a nightmare in it’s own right. Hoping that I don’t have to have another transplant, but if I do I’ll be one of the only hockey players that have had 3 transplants. Wish me luck