At 01:29 AM 12/1/97 -0500, Jeremy Kingfish Salmon wrote:
>>>>>>>>
= He's generally disliked here at Michigan. A mix of the bad judgement, and
= him "swallowing his whistle" at several crucial moments and for a few
= blatant offenses have not made him the darling of the fans that say,
= Piotrowski is...
=
 
Respectfully, I disagree.  Matt Shegos, IMHO, is one of, if not THE best
referee in the CCHA.  As Jeremy mentions, some Michigan fans are often
heard chanting "We Want Shegos" after a bad call (or, at least, what they
view as a bad call, which translates to every call against Michigan ;-).
One could interpret that cheer as one "for" Shegos, not "against".  As far
as I have known in my history as a student and now "public" season ticket
holder at Yost, if any orange-arm-banded person is a darling of the fans,
it is Matt, not Piotrowski.
 
FWIW, Matt was selected by the CCHA & NCAA to referee last year's NCAA
final--and from that you can argue that the league believes that Matt is
one of the best referees in the CCHA.  Personally, I'd put Steve Piotrowski
is right up there with Matt.  From what I've heard and read, it seems that
the players also a have pretty good amount of respect for both Matt and Steve.
 
One of Matt's best qualities as a ref is that he is constantly talking to
the players (he never shuts up)--the players know exactly what Matt is
thinking and exactly what he is and isn't going to call.  In the old days
of CCHA games on PASS, they had a live Mic on the referee and the TV
viewers got to hear the refs on the ice.  When Matt was out there, even the
TV folks got an earful! ;-)
 
Of course, Matt is not perfect.  Perhaps Matt's biggest fault is that he
(like many NHL refs) tends to put the whistle in his pocket in the third
period.  If he starts to feel like he needs to reign in the players or if
he feels like he's starting to lose "control," he'll get that whistle out
and use it.  Which often makes him come across as being inconsistant, but
with his constant talking to the players, the players know that he's on the
edge of getting the whistle out of his pocket, so while it may be a
surprise to the fans, it's not to the players.
 
Also, remember that there are two Shegos' wearing the orange arm bands in
the CCHA.  Matt and Mark (a/k/a "Duke").  Matt is the short one.  Mark
worked the Michigan/Minnesota game this past weekend and I think that he is
becoming a much better official (he did a very nice job with the UM/UM
game) than he has been in the past.
 
This is all my opinion, and I speak only for myself.
 
Drop the Puck,
Roger
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// Roger L. Spurgeon             [log in to unmask]
// Assistant Director / Technology Coordinator
// Univ. of Mich. Dept. of Recreational Sports
 
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