I find that extremely hard to believe-  the part about your annual rant
being over, that is  ;-)

On 5/16/06, Rowe, Thomas <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> All excellent points, Mark.  You do have to allow some flexibility for
> the referees to alter what they are calling in order to maintain control
> of some games, but I see no reason why refs from different conferences
> cannot be trained to respond to the same rules interpretations in the
> same way.   If they were then you wouldn't find chaos caused by two refs
> on the ice calling different things.  BTW, I think on some penalties,
> the ref sees something and knows a penalty has occured, but what they
> report as one two minute penalty to the anouncer was, in fact, a
> different two minute minor.  Nevertheless, the great majority of them do
> a fantastic job seeing infractions and calling them.
>
> My biggest refereeing gripe is when they "swallow the whistle" to let
> them "decide it on the ice."  That is utter BS.  If it is a penalty in
> the first five minutes of the game, its a penalty in the last five.  Not
> calling it is not letting them decide it on the ice, its altering the
> rules so that those who push the rules get away with more.  OK - my
> annual rant is over now.
>
> Tom Rowe
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: - Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Lewin
> Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 11:46 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Four-official system proposed for college hockey (and other
> off-season tidbits)
>
> I agree that the "Let the Boys Play" play issue is a big problem. But
> aside from the amount of fighting that is tolerated in the NHL (and I
> assume that's a league philosophy as opposed to individual taste on the
> part of each ref), I find that there is much more consistency across the
> board in the NHL than in college.  Of course, that is due to the fact
> that you have a higher pay scale (and presumably better qualified
> individuals) and a consistent ruling body.
>
> One of the big issues in college hockey is the oversight of referees and
> rule enforcement on the part of the individual leagues. It  would be
> virtually impossible to get inter-league consistency in the NCAA since
> leagues like the ECACHL have low tolerance for physical play, especially
> along the boards while the western leagues allow much more physical
> playing but have a lower tolerance for the clutching and grabbing seen
> in the ECACHL. When holiday tournament time comes around and NCAA
> tournaments come around, the result of two teams from different leagues
> playing (and a referee from a third league officiating), the results can
> be somewhat chaotic.  And that doesn't even address the issue of
> differing referees within a single league.  Ideally, it would be nice to
> let the boys (and
> girls) play.  But, what I mean by that, is that it would be nice for the
> players and coaches to know what constitutes holding, what constitutes
> hooking and what you can and cannot do along the boards and in the
> corners.
> And it would be nice if you only had to learn those definitions once,
> not have to relearn the definitions each game for each new referee (and
> sometimes re-learn from the same referee at the start of each period).
>
> At this stage, I believe it's less important for college to adopt the
> NHL standard than it is for the entire NCAA to adopt the same standard
> and enforce it uniformly across the board.  The game should be about the
> players, playing within the rules. You can't have that if the rules are
> open to each and every official on the ice.  Then the game starts being
> about them rather than the people  competing.
>
> On 5/16/06, Erik Biever <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > Having watched a bunch of NHL playoff games, I must say that I like
> > the four-official system.  I'd also like to see college hockey adopt
> > the current NHL standards for holding and interference, i.e., actually
>
> > calling the penalties.  The NHL somehow avoided geting bogged down in
> > the "let the boys play" argument that pervades college hockey.
> >
> > -- Erik
> >
> > Wayne writes:
> >
> > > Larry Mahoney of the Bangor Daily News writes about a four-official
> > > system proposed for college hockey, Hall of Fame game at the Xcel
> > > Energy Center, the Maine hockey banquet and other items of interest
> ...
> > >
> > >   http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=133940
> > >
> >
>