Ryan raises some good points, I'd like to give my point of view:
>On the topic of awarding assists:
>
>I have been Officiating since I was 14 years old, and one of the things which
>I took most seriously was the awarding of goals and assists.  I think that this
>should ALWAYS be the job of the official, as opposed to some hometown appointed
>person.  With a little practice it is not that hard to do and the referee can
>always get assistance from his linesmen (3-man system) or the other referee
>(2-man system.)
 
Unfortunately, it is that hard to do and I have noticed more goals being
called correctly since we in HE have had the pressbox take more control over
it.  There is just too much for a referee to do on the ice to be able to
always award points correctly.  Also, the point about captains being the ones
to request changes in scoring never has washed with me.  I have known coaches
who would never allow their teams to request changes in scoring because they
wanted the players concentrating on the game.  And I also remember situations
when referees would disallow changes that were requested even though we knew
the change should have been made.  Believe it or not, it is actually more
uniform now than in the past.
 
The hometown scoring is also much more of a team effort than I may have
implied in my last posting on this subject.  Both SIDs usually sit together
and confer on all goals before reaching a common scoring.  Each SID will tend to
defer to the other in matters of scoring involving his/her team.  This makes
sense and is very fair.
 
Just to clarify again, in HE home rinks, the referee gives the number of the
goalscorer ONLY to the official scorer.  The official scorer then gets the
assists from the pressbox.  Changes in goals, such as if a tv replay shows
a deflection in front, will be cleared through the referee and then announced.
I think this is the best method I have seen.
 
>                This would remove any temptation towards biasedness, being
>that officials are by definition supposed to be unbiased.   And for those who
>think that just by touching the puck you should not be awarded an assist I
>have the following two comments.
 
I didn't reproduce them, but they're both very good points and are why I
would like to see some sort of definite statement or regulation on how points
should be awarded.  Such as, "A player who leaves the puck behind his net
for another player who starts a play that results in a goal shall/shall not
be awarded an assist."  There are good arguments on both sides as to why
assists should or should not be awarded in many situations.  Often it comes
down to a judgment call, and I would prefer that it not be this way.
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Mike Machnik        [log in to unmask]       [log in to unmask]