John Feigal writes:
>I prefer the college game over the professional game because in general it
>emphasizes skating over fighting and "excessive" physical contact.  While
>hockey is a contact sport, IMHO ever since the college players began
>wearing helmets and masks, some players have become more aggressive with
>the excuse that the other guy is protected.  There is a fine line between
>the officials "letting them play" and taking control of a game early and
>many officials I've seen in the WCHA can't or don't do a very good job in
>this respect.
 
    This brings up another point I've been meaning to talk about.  I like
    the college game, too, for all of the reasons John mentioned, and
    I have no problem with solid, clean checking during a game.  But as
    we have said before, the full shields have led to too much stickwork,
    and this, I believe, is an indirect reason why the NHL faces the same
    problem.
 
    When the season began, there were supposed to be several points of
    emphasis for officials, and I have seen few of them called.  In particular,
    hitting from behind, if determined to be blatant enough, is a major
    and a DQ.  This was called *twice* in Merrimack's first exhibition game,
    and since then I cannot recall a single occasion that it was called
    in approximately 50 games that I have seen all or parts of.  Yes, it
    is true that I am not seeing as many hits from behind as last year, but
    there have been some obvious infractions that went unnoticed.  Another
    point of emphasis was forcing players coming on for a change to wait
    till the player coming off hits the boards.  I am sure we will all agree
    that this is being called very little although it continues to take
    place.
 
    My point is that the NCAA is getting together and deciding to crack down
    on certain things, and then the officials are not enforcing the rules.
    I have little doubt that again this year we will face a situation where
    the crackdown will suddenly take place in the tournament, and teams will
    not be able to get away with what they had been allowed by the officials
    all year long - and this could cost some teams a game.
 
    Finally, my biggest complaint with a referee, besides not being consistent
    in his calls, is when he allows a game to get out of hand and then
    scrambles to make tons of makeup calls.  I believe that most of the time,
    college officials do a good job.  But referees need to work a little harder
    to recognize when a game is reaching the out-of-hand point and come down
    on the players involved.  This isn't easy, because at the same time I
    can't stand when a great game between two teams that aren't cheap is
    continually disrupted by a referee calling players tripping over their
    skatelaces, two guys bumping into each other in the corner, etc.  So it
    is a fine line between letting them play and keeping the game in hand, but
    I would like to see referees do a little better job of walking that line.
 
    Oh yes - they ARE cracking down on hitting after the whistle very well,
    and for this the referees should be patted on the back.  They're doing
    a good job calling this, as the NCAA stipulated, but I have to admit
    that it doesn't seem to have reduced the amount of hitting after whistle
    significantly.  But they are doing the job they were asked to do.
 
 
    - mike