What can I add to this but HEAR! HEAR!  Perhaps one of the best, most
reasoned analyses of reffing I have read in a long time, maybe ever.
Thank you for this, Mark.  I especially endorse point #4.  Not calling a
penalty towards the end of the game IS affecting the outcome with your
whistle.  It is NOT letting the players decide the contest "on the ice;"
rather it is allowing the players to decide the outcome by cheating.

Tom Rowe 

-----Original Message-----
From: - Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Lewin
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 4:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: officiating

I think someone hit upon the issue and the solution early in this
thread.
The comment was made about western referees in an eastern style game
(and the opposite is true as well).

The western and eastern game have the same rulebook but you would never
know it by watching the games.
What is elbowing and boarding in the east is just good defense in the
west.
What is hooking and slashing in the west is poking and tapping in the
east.

It shows up all year long, even within the same league.  When you have a
hard hitting, physical team (like Cornell) against a wide open speed
team (like Quinnipiac),  The games are penalty laden. And, depending on
the referee, you can't even tell who will be getting called and who
won't.  It seems like a ridiculous situation when both teams have to
play tentatively for the first 10 minutes of each game, just because
they need to find out what the referee finds objectionable and what is
ok.

Go into inter-league play and it gets even worse because each league has
its own style and the visiting team has to abandon their style of play
to match the style of the referee.  Some of those games are decided by
the style enforced by the ref rather than the skills of the teams.

Get into tournament play where both teams are going against unknown refs
and it has to be a nightmare.

The solution is simple (on paper) and has been written on the list
every year since I've been a member.

1. There must be a single governing body for all referees which lays
down the guidelines as to how games should be called.  As long as the
style is dictated by each individual league, there will never be
uniformity.
(Whether or not the individual leagues can come to a consensus is a
different story altogether and will be left as an exercise for the
reader).
2.There must be standards within each league that dictate what does and
what does not constitute a penalty.  If we can't get uniformity within a
league, it is hopeless to expect one nationwide.
3.There must be continuity from start to end of season. For the past 2
years, the first  8-10 games of the season have been awful to watch with
all the obstruction hooking and interference calls going on.  Then, all
of a sudden it stops.  It's not (as the NCAA would like to believe)
because the teams finally "get it" and stop their obstructions, it's
because the referees just stop calling these penalties.
4. Referees must call the same game from the opening faceoff right
through until the end of overtime. It's horrendous to see some of the
crap that goes on at the end of the third period when the players know
that the refs have "put the whistle away".  Maybe the refs  don't want
their call to "affect the outcome of the game".  Bad officiating leads
to undeserved goals (or the lack of deserved goals).  And the last time
I looked,  a goal in the opening minute counted just as much as one in
the last seconds of the third.

We can complain about referees til the cows come home but how do you
rate a referee?  Every one of us has an idea of how the game should be
called.
It's our own personal bias and most eastern fans are critical of western
refs and vice versa.  I think we can all agree that things would be much
better with consistency across leagues, within leagues and from start to
finish of each game.  Consistently doing what will be the big issue if a
solution is to be found.

I suspect that the leagues do not want to get involved in the touchy
issue of giving up their own autonomy and that nothing will be done.
And we will be back here again next year having this same old discussion
again.