For a long time I, like Mr. Moerland, have felt that the difference
between the western and eastern styles of officiating is a reflection of
the traditional view of western college hockey being more physical than
its eastern counterpart.  However, lately I've wondered whether these
differences are, in fact, a thing of the past, especially concerning the
ECAC.  It's interesting that Mr. Machnik feels that a lot of the rough
stuff which is allowed by ECAC officials would be called in a HE game.
Since my brother is a BU alum, I have seen many BU games and I have taken
him to see quite a few Harvard games.  We tend to agree with Mike.
However, this is definitely not to say that the ECAC is more physical
than HE.  There have been plenty of clean, solid, body checks in both
leagues this season, but I feel that the ECAC is becoming increasingly
lenient on stuff like hooking, holding, interference, and slashing.  I
also clearly remember a comment posted by someone from a western school
concerning the Harvard-BC telecast in this year's Beanpot.  He wrote
something to the effect that the game could've never been played in his
league (I can't remember if it was the WCHA or the CCHA) because the refs
would've called penalties every five seconds.  Now that is clearly an
exaggeration, but it made me wonder whether the "physical western team"
and "speedy eastern team" stereotypes are valid any longer.  I guess
we'll find out soon enough!
 
Here's to a great tourney,
 
Tony
The Crimson shall rise again!!
GO BU!!
GO CLARKSON!!
GO RPI!!
 
On Fri, 24 Mar 1995, Mike Machnik wrote:
 
> Steve Moerland writes:
> >   As to who it benefits more, it's awfully close. In an inter-regional game,
> >a slight advantage, IMO, goes to the team that shares the official's region.
> >In a game, to use your example, between Minnesota and RPI I think that Minn.
> >would be hurt a bit more by an HE or ECAC official than RPI would be by a
> >western official.  On the one hand, in a game with an eastern ref Minnesota
> >would have to tone down their game, and would be likely to take more penalties.
>
> I find the talk about Western vs Eastern officiating interesting,
> because we see large differences just within the East - between the
> ECAC and HE.
>
> The second ECAC quarterfinal game between Harvard and RPI surprised
> those of us who follow HE, because the game was filled with
> "incidents" that we believed would have been called by HE officials
> but were let go by the ECAC officials working the game.  This was also
> the case in the four RPI Invitational games I saw, which were all
> worked by ECAC crews.
>
> It appears that a HE crew will do the RPI-Minnesota game, and I
> suspect it will be the top crew from HE of Cole-Gravellese-Jones.  I
> think you can expect them to be rather consistent in their
> play-calling, and a way in which RPI will have to adjust is that they
> won't be able to get away with the kind of stuff that they and Harvard
> got away with in that game I refer to.
>
> A game worked by Frank Cole tends to be one in which the teams are
> allowed to play.  Some referees always call things tightly, but Cole
> seems to be a supporter of clean physical hockey (emphasis on clean).
> He'll let go a lot of incidental stuff, on both sides, as long as the
> game stays under control.  But if things get out of hand, you may
> suddenly see a lot of trips to the box by both teams.
>
> I think I have seen enough of Cole et al to say that the way the game
> is called will be dictated by how the teams play.  If things get a bit
> chippy and a lot of calls are made, I won't be surprised to hear some
> HOCKEY-Lers jump all over them, but in these cases it is often the
> teams' style of play that leads to penalties being called.
>
> A good example, I thought, was the HE final.  I felt more penalties
> were called against PC because of the huge difference in styles
> between PC and BU.  PC had to play a close-checking game to contain
> BU, often punctuated by situations where they had to take liberties to
> prevent the quicker and more skilled Terriers from breaking it open.
>
> I've only seen Minnesota on tv once and RPI live about 4 times.  From
> that, it seems to me that Minnesota has the more skilled forwards, and
> RPI might have to take a penalty here and there to keep up with them.
> RPI's defense, while it has improved greatly throughout the season, is
> still somewhat inexperienced, and this often leads to bad penalties
> too.  I believe RPI will have to play a smart positional game to have
> a chance, while the Gophers will try to open it up and dare RPI to
> stay with them.
> ---                                                                   ---
> Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
> Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
>