Hello, all --
 
>game.  I AM SO SICK OF REFS TRYING TO EVEN THINGS UP, DONT ANY OF THEM HAVE
>ANY GUTS, TO STAND UP FOR WHAT THEY CALL?
 
I know this isn't a popular view in hockey circles, but I'm generally in
favor of refs equalizing in OT.  If you think about it, it serves 2
important objectives fairly well.  First, obviously, it helps to insure
that games aren't decided by a penalty call (and we've all ranted and raved
about how the human process of calling penalties is flawed); and, second,
it insures that players cannot commit penalties with impunity.
In that sense, it's a pretty good compromise.
 
The only time I think it is inappropriate is when failing to call a penalty
decides a game.  So if a really good scoring chance is eliminated by a
penalty, I don't think equalizing is appropriate (nor obviously, would it
be if one player deliberately tried to knock another out of the game).  But
in a situation like the one you described, where the call is from a fight,
I see no reason not to even things out.
 
Just the $.02 of someone who should be studying evidence right now. . .
 
Carl Sussman
Brown '96
Harvaard Law '99
 
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