Officials for 2019 Playoffs

[IPv6Freely 2094]

The following referees have moved on to the second round:

• Pochmara/McCauley
• O'Rourke/Peel
• Dwyer/Charron
• Pollock/St. Laurent

The NHL is doing the right thing and cutting the following pairings:

• O'Halloran/Furlatt (officials from Vegas/San Jose game 7)
• Meier/Hanson (officials from Toronto/Boston game 2)

This is the first time in over a decade that O'Halloran has not been at least to the conference finals, and he is the current leader among active referees with 212 playoff games. 

[chk hrd 164]

I think they had no choice with O'Halloran. Whether the call was right or not there would be to much controversy following him around. He would be under a microscope and it would be impossible for him to do his job.

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

It's a tough gig but someone has to do it. I agree with @chk hrd in regards to O'Halloran. Most people don't understand how tough it is to officiate a NHL game. Doesn't matter though because when the fan starts talking about the stripes more than the game itself, it takes away from what the NHL wants the focus to be.

[IPv6Freely 2094]

No question its tough, but they need to be accountable for their mistakes like anyone else. I'm just happy to see they actually are. 

[chippa13 1844]

The NHL always pares down the list of officials as the rounds go on in the playoffs. I wonder if whatever pair was doing the Sharks-Knights game where Couture received the phantom goalie interference penalty that negated a SJ goal and led to a VGK powerplay goal that decided that game also was dropped from the officials rotation. Or do people only care about game deciding calls in game 7?

[IPv6Freely 2094]

NHL officials are human and miss quite a few calls. I'm not sure the NHL typically apologizes for most of them. 

[BenBreeg 493]

My kids do that where when you comment on something they did wrong they just point out the fact that their brother or sister did something bad yesterday and argue we aren't applying the same standard...

That isn't the point.  Calls are missed and that isn't going to change.  IMO the NHL is the worst of the major sports as far as officiating goes.  This play was not called a penalty, then play was stopped and not only did they call based on the outcome which wasn't a direct result of the crosscheck, they overreacted and gave a 5 and a 10.  The only other call so far that was this bad was the Ferland ejection in the Caps-Carolina series.

[chippa13 1844]

11 minutes ago, IPv6Freely said:

NHL officials are human and miss quite a few calls. I'm not sure the NHL typically apologizes for most of them. 

And that was a mistake of the NHL. There are numerous examples of egregious missed or blown calls, many with game or series deciding consequences. It would have been fine to do the typical, "The on-ice officials saw xxxxxx and made the call based on yyyyyyyy" explanation and be done with it. Any kind of apology that is made public just pours gasoline on the fire.

[Kgbeast 195]

Apologies never fix anything and often times more of a rub in the face, but the acknowledgement of an error is important as it is a " we messed up here and try to do better next time" vs. "shut up, I am the king here and what I say is always right". Not going to reverse anything for Vegas, but I can almost guarantee that moving forward no such call will be made again in these playoffs. Also, in Vegas/Sharks case, refs were like "shit... let them have a pp, they sucked all night and will loose anyway, hopefully they'll get a tuck for the fans". They did not know that Vegas will just evaporate from the game because of this. Bad call, better team packed in... Ironically, the sequence of events leading to Vegas demise is just as tragic as the sequence of events that led to Pavelsky injury. Vegas got shafted here by supernatural forces here, no need to whine, this is just the way cookie crumbles sometimes.

[IPv6Freely 2094]

And now the Sharks are whining that the NHL should apologize for an icing that was waved off. It's a bit silly. There is a massive difference between calling a 5 min major on a play that barely deserved a minor, and a linesman making a judgement call on an icing play that happens hundreds of times a season. 

[chippa13 1844]

Icing isn't a judgement call in that case. You either win the race to the dot or your don't. Another couple of these types of goals occur and the league will overreact and we'll have reviews for icings on top of the reviews for offsides and goalie interference.

[IPv6Freely 2094]

Sure it is.

[BenBreeg 493]

Technically icing isn’t but given the lack of an actual line and the fact that the linesman is probably making the call from a bit of an angle it is certainly going to have some subjectivity to it.

[Kgbeast 195]

Yes, from back on the ice surface, it is a crap shoot to figure who won the race if it is close. They probably call it on body language (Players know who won it).

[caveman27 208]

A bunch of calls were missed in yesterday's game. Either they aren't catching them or they want to see some fights develop. 

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

I'd be curious to hear some solutions to improve officiating at the NHL. Anyone can point out "problems."

[marka 526]

Howdy,

I don't want the officiating to improve.

Makes me feel a lot better when I totally blow a call reffing beer league.

Mark

[Kgbeast 195]

Game is too fast, easy to miss a lot. It needs to accepted that the officiating is not going to ever be accurate and the people in the stands and in front of the TV will always see more. Additional reviews and challenges will just slow down already slow progressing game. It is norm that it takes 2+ hours to watch 1 hour of play. I would hate to extend that to 3+ as a norm. Officiating needs to be accepted as being part of the game. Some blown calls for you some against. Call it luck... Just like broken sticks. I think they should scrap the reviews except for disciplinary (major vs minor) and all goals. The rest should be if they cought it they cought it, if not then "it happened the way it happened because it would not have happened in any other way". 

Edited July 2, 2019 by Kgbeast

[chippa13 1844]

For a guy who didn't believe in fate, Morpheus sure put a lot of stock in a prophecy and things happening the way they were supposed to.

[caveman27 208]

On 7/2/2019 at 10:31 AM, 215BroadStBullies610 said:

I'd be curious to hear some solutions to improve officiating at the NHL. Anyone can point out "problems."

What if you had an off-ice referee who watched the game via a video screen and he could whistle calls from a desk by hitting a button that signals the on-ice referee that he saw a penalty. Then, through a microphone, the off-ice referee would tell the on-ice referee who the call is against and for what. Then, the on-ice referee would blow the whistle if the offending team is in possession of the puck or put up his hand up and point to the pllayer with the infraction if the other team has possession.

Of course, both on-ice and off-ice referees could still miss a call.