Nice post, Mark!

On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 11:41 PM, Mark Lewin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Thats a lot of hockey to watch in one weekend.
>

Yep!

I keep forgetting how much Barry Melrose sucks!!!
>

I suspect it difficult to be outspoken and correct.  I like the perspective,
even though he might be right only 60-70% of the time! ;-)


> As much as the NCAA stressed contact to the head penalties this year, as
> long as each league maintains control over their own referees, inter-league
> play will be inherently unfair.  There were instances of pounding people
> into the boards during the Michigan-CC game with no penalty calls while, at
> the same time, an open ice check in New Haven may have arguably changed the
> outcome of the Yale-UMD game.
>

I had the same thoughts!


> Did anyone notice that the referees wear no names or identification as to
> which league they're from. I assume the referees were announced at the
> start
> of each game, but I missed them and the announcers never mentioned it
> during
> the play of any of the games I watched.
>
> I'm sorry, even if I have to agree with Barry Melrose, but that center ice
> hit by Brian O'Neill of Yale, was a clean hit.  Maybe you could argue it
> was
> a charging minor, but even on the replay, I didn't see any contact to the
> head.
>

The pendulum has swung so that delivery of a hard check has a decent chance
to get one a quick trip to the locker room, as does an inadvertent tap of a
stick to a helmet.  Trying to remove concussions from the game seems on the
surface to be good for the players, but how will it end up changing the
game.  I hope the attention to this area continues in all respects.


> And the OT goal during the Michigan-UNO game?  If the referees had the same
> view of the goal line as the tv audience did, there was no way they could
> have seen the puck, let alone "conclusive evidence" to overturn the "no
> goal" call on the ice.  Its a good thing to bring technology into play in
> national tournaments but that call gives technology a bad name.  I hope
> that
> is some further explanation of what happened during that interminable
> sequence, but I doubt we'll hear anything else about it.
>

I hate when I agree with announcers I don't know, but appear not in the same
league as my local TV and Radio announcers.  Not even my 52 diagonal inches
showed the puck over the goal line at any time.  Either there was another
view or someone made a disastrous mistake.   Maybe it was in or maybe not,
but the call was no-goal on the ice and so to overturn the call seems like
it should be a career-ending call (the puck may have slid along or close to
the goal line).


> I was glad to see that in every game I watched, the referees did not put
> their whistles away in the 3rd period.  If they called it in the first
> period, they called it in the third period (or even the overtimes).
>

It did seem like some, perhaps minor or inadvertent, hooks/trips/holds were
ignored  in some games.  The Merrimac/Notre Dame game seemed to have more
than its share of (bad) non-calls, then a silly call.  Anyone know the ref
names so I know which refs I think suck?  ;-)

I really got tired of hearing how Miami got the short end of the stick
> having to go into Manchester to play UNH in the first round.  It didn't
> seem
> to have any bad effects on Jeff Jackson and Notre Dame.
>

What a weird game (MC/ND).  MC dominates for 35 minutes.  ND adjusts and
dominates for 25 minutes.  Sure that MC had lost its legs, I felt ND would
quickly win in OT, only to see MC dominate again.  I also felt bad for Joe
Cannata, the MC goalie who had a great season, only to let in 3 "soft" goals
after MC had a 3-1 lead.


> It may provide an advantage to a team to be sent to a regional near their
> home ice, but did you notice that there seemed to be signs of life in
> Bridgeport and Manchester but nothing but empty seats in Green Bay and St.
> Louis.  Having been to numerous regionals in Albany, I know its tough to
> gauge the size of a crowd since a lot of fans come for only a single game.
> It will be interesting to see the attendance stats for the different venues
>
> Doesn't it seem kind of ridiculous that hockey players (and fans) now have
> to wait two weeks for the championship, just so we don't "interfere" with
> basketball?
> Roundball semifinals are on Saturday and the finals on Monday night.  Whats
> wrong with with hockey semifinals on Friday and championship on Sunday?
> What are they afraid of, people not being able to attend both basketball
> and
> hockey championships?  Both sports sell out their respective arenas anyway
> and the games are broadcast on different networks so there's no conflict on
> tv either.
>

I like the (nearly) two weeks and Thursday/Saturday and think being far, far
away from squeak-ball best of all.

Is this year's FF sold out?  I'm pretty sure I've seen advertisements last
month and this.

Did anyone get a chance to listen to interviews with Paul Stewart (director
> of officiating in the ECAC) during the ECAC championships broadcasting?  He
> kept going on and on about how the ECAC encourages the referees to use
> their
> discretion calling (or not calling) penalties when the effect of the
> penalty
> has no effect on the play.  According to him (I'm paraphrasing here), if
> someone is hooked in center ice, away from the puck and it doesn't prevent
> the victim of the hook from a scoring opportunity, the referee might want
> to
> "let it go".  After listening to him,  I no longer wonder why the state of
> referees in the ECAC is as bad as it is.  He seems to want to
> institutionalize incompetence.
>

Old school ... I sort of understand it, but it has never seemed "right" to
me, too.


> I'm  getting sick and tired of putting up with people bad mouthing the ECAC
> and eastern hockey in general.  However, maybe we'll talk more about that
> next year, eh?
>

My least favorite is when "my team isn't national champion, so its coach
sucks".

On the other hand, it's hard to argue with 2 CCHA and 2 WCHA teams in the
frozen Four.


> I'm looking forward to hearing from people who attended each of the
> regional
> sites to hear their impressions of the arena and how the host city treated
> them and how the local restaurants and accommodations were.
>

Bring on the trip reports, please!

Cheers, Wayne