The complaints about the too many men call on Providence in the HE
Championship Game are ludicrous.  The call was justified.  After the
game I spoke with NESN color man Bob Norton, who as I saw during the
game (we had replay in the press box), said he had all six players
circled on his monitor and noted that the player closest to the bench
was playing the puck.  I don't know what more you want - it was a
textbook call.  It was the RIGHT call.
 
BTW, I also happened to speak with two of the game officials, referee
Frank Cole and linesman Bill Jones.  They're both very good guys and,
as I thought during the game, did a superb job calling the final.  As
one whose loyalties lie with neither BU nor PC - although I felt a tug
on my heartstrings for the underdog Friars - I am confident that the
criticisms of the officiating that have appeared on HOCKEY-L are
wholly unjustified.
 
I'm sorry that not everyone was paying as close attention to the game
as these guys apparently were.  It's too bad you didn't get a chance
to hear some of the great things they had to say about plays that
occurred, players who played well, and so on.  (I don't see many
people talking about anything other than the officiating, so I suppose
that must be all they took away from the game.)  Heather told me later
that she thought that people see the officials as an enemy, or as
someone out to "get" their team...and that obviously they are no
different from us or the coaches/players on the teams that various
people on HOCKEY-L follow.
 
Clean up your act, everyone.  This criticism of the officiating has
gone beyond getting out of hand, as Mike Bresina suggested last week.
It IS out of hand, and I am tired of reading about it.  It is not why
HOCKEY-L exists.
 
One more thing: think about how you would feel if you knew your
comments were being read by some of the very people you are quick to
say such nasty things about.  Because chances are, they ARE reading...
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93