Dave Fischer writes:
>I'm pleased to say that in the WCHA, it is mandatory for all teams to have
>video replay capability in the pressbox.
 
This is interesting, I would be curious to hear more about what it
takes to implement this and what the cost has been.
 
In Hockey East rinks, the league has mandated that the referee will
call the goal and assists are awarded from the press box.  There is no
video replay used in general, although it is taken advantage of when
the game is on tv and monitors are nearby.
 
When there is no replay on hand, which is most of the time, it is
usually up to the SID to hand out assists.  The usual MO is to have
the home SID call his/her team's assists, and if a visiting SID is on
hand, the home SID will defer to the opposing SID on goals scored by
the visitors unless he/she is sure of the scoring.
 
There will sometimes be goals scored that result in scoring by consensus
in the press box, since inevitably there is disagreement.  In these
situations, replay would definitely help.
 
When a goal is scored and no one is sure of the assists right away, I
believe it makes sense to call the goal unassisted at first and later
add the assists as you become certain of them.  No one likes to take
assists away from players once they are announced.  But, I have also
seen situations where assists are awarded out of thin air and then
they need to be changed later.  That's a little embarrassing, more so
than just adding them.
 
At Merrimack, one of the things that head coach Ron Anderson does is
to sit down with the game tape afterwards in his office and go through
the goals to doublecheck the scoring.  Unfortunately, there is
currently no way to check the scoring on tape as the game goes along.
It occasionally results in changes to the official scoring, but the
end result is that we know our stats are right.
 
I agree with Dave, players should receive credit for what they have
done, and assists should even be taken away if it is later determined
that they weren't deserved.  Accuracy is important here.  I tend to
help out Merrimack SID Jim Seavey on assists when he is uncertain or
misses a goal, and I think that overall, we do a good job - and we try
hard to get it right.  But replay would definitely help a great deal.
Maybe it is something that can be proposed in the future.
 
A sidebar to this is that even when you have replay, there is
disagreement on the question of how assists should be awarded in
certain situations.  For example, some SIDs will award assists when a
team puts the puck in its own net, while others say that assists
cannot be given out on such a play (I agree with the latter).  And
suppose a pass goes from A1, off the stick of B1, to A2 who scores?
Some would say it is unassisted, but others would give an assist to A1
on the contention that B1 never controlled the puck even though he
deflected it (here, I would give the assist).
 
The point is that there needs to be some agreed upon consensus among
official scorers and/or SIDs on how to deal with these situations;
currently everyone does what he/she believes is right.  We need a set
of statistical interpretations either as an addendum to the rule book
or as a separate publication to standardize the way these things are
done.  Besides assists, there is a whole list of situations involving
statistics in hockey that need to be standardized.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93