A couple of comments on the officiating question (now that I've caught up on my unread hockey-l mail): - JimL (who reads but almost never posts to hockey-l) thinks I'm one of the more biased fans at the games... I think thats because I really am a "fan"... and just naturally (as Mike pointed out) watch the Badgers play closer than the other way... but I really do want more consistant officiating, (and when I see it, usually comment about the missed calls both ways) and am pretty sure that I've never seen the kind of consistant (game to game, ref to ref) bias by refs that others sometimes complain about. - I like a slightly tighter called game than some do, but most of all, a consistant game (which I think is what everyone wants). - I really like the "wash-out" signal for dives (and other no-calls?) It looks like not all the refs are using it, but those of us who know what it is can see that the ref isn't lost out there, he made a decision. - I've seen too many games where there comes a point where a really good official (Buzzy, believe it or not, WCHA fans) wold make the right call to cool things down, and (more often), an official who doesn't have quite that feel for the game (*and therefore *didn't* make the call when it was needed*) lets things go too long... and ends up calling penalties every shift for the rest of the night, trying to "keep" (really regain) control of the game. - At the Badger Hockey Showdown, watching the first games (Wisconsin played in the second game both nights) each day was kinda fun -- the people watching were generally interested in hockey (not just Wisconsin), and (since we were sitting in the 4th row) we had a good close look at the play, and really had no biases either way. One of the refs (sorry, don't know who) really looked like he had no idea what was going on. I mean, he just didn't look alert at all, not just that he was letting things go. - The 2 ref system has improved things, in my opinion. Also, the new face off rules seem to help (most of the time). --david -------- david parter university of wisconsin -- madison [log in to unmask] computer sciences department