At 11:40 AM 1-10-2002 -0600, Tom Rowe wrote:
>*Warning:  Rant mode ON
>
>Let me clarify what I mean by that last part.  There is one aspect of
>refereeing I do not understand and never will, yet know I am in a
>minority:  If its a penalty, call it - and be just as ready to call it
>with 5 minutes to go in the 3rd period as you were with 5 minutes gone
>in the first.  The concept of "letting the game be decided by the
>players" is utter nonsense.  What you are really saying is "let the game
>be decided by whichever team is able to get away with more illegal
>action."  There are rules in hockey.  Enforce them and you will have a
>more exciting game; sluff them off and you start to approach the NHL.

Since you brought up officiating:

Does anybody think it's been better this year?  Oh, there've been moments -
in the RPI Holiday tourney we had a guy named Piotrowsky from the CCHA on a
cross-training mission.  When he did call penalties they tended to be
even-up, and he let some stuff go that I wondered about.  And Kotyra called
4 misconducts, including a pair for an after-the-roughing scrum, in the
RPI-Brown game last weekend.  But in the ECAC at least, it's been fairly
even this year.

Also, my contention is that when the officiating *is* bad, it tends to cut
both ways.  If the guy overlooks hooking, and makes weak elbowing calls, he
calls it that way for both teams.

Tom, apologies for originally sending this out just to you.

Joe
--
Joe Makowiec can be reached at:
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