I don’t think the “new” post-lockout system is working at all.
How many blown calls can you make in one week, you may ask? Well, the NHL officials seemed hell-bent on setting a precedent this week, from Detroit not getting a goal while the puck was in the net and the somewhat even more blatant example was the ref STARING AT THE PUCK IN THE NET and blowing the play dead against Toronto. Not only that, but there’s hardly any consistency in regards to hits to the head, this player gets suspended, this player doesn’t. It’s almost like players have to draw straws in Colin Campbell’s office for him to make a decision on whether or not what they did was worthy of a suspension.
Egghead, Gary Bettman said on the NHL hour, his daily show broadcast on XM and simulcast on NHL.com, that “if a ref intends to blow the whistle, the play is dead.” Well, then, I ask you, Mr. Bettman, why give them whistles at all? They can run around the ice saying “I INTENDED TO BLOW MY WHISTLE BUT SINCE I DON’T HAVE ONE, THE PLAY IS DEAD.” That is the most asinine thing I think I’ve ever heard. A play shouldn’t be dead until the whistle is blown, plain and simple. If that doesn’t fit into the NHL’s already ridiculous and always wavering set of rules, then I propose those calls be sent to the War Room, and have the decision made there, since, well, the refs on the ice are too incompetent to call the game themselves.
What’s actually troubling to me, is that EVERY OTHER SPORT has an established set of rules that everyone can figure out. In the NHL, what looks like a penalty, probably isn’t, and what is a penalty, probably seems harmless. In that case, what looks like a goal in the NHL, apparently isn’t anymore.
The past few seasons, it’s been “the refs are still getting used to the new rules” but hey, guess what? It’s not acceptable anymore. Learn how to call a game, or find another occupation. The league needs to stop making excuses for the refs and force them to own up to the decisions they make on the ice, every other sport has a sense of accountability, apparently the NHL is devoid of all logic and sense.
Imagine how much trouble Ed Hochuli could get himself into, or out of, with the excuse of “But I intended to blow the whistle.”