You're right about the actual sound of the whistle not being the actual time play stops. I've seen many a goal be wiped out due to the fact that the whistle blew before the puck was shot. This is usually followed by a chorus of boos from the fans, but this is true in any sport. I ref basketball myself and I've been criticized for late whistles all the time. It's a fact of human beings being out there making the decisions based on what they see, and figuring out if what they think they see is actually what they see. This can sometimes take more than two seconds (which in thre split-second world of sports is an eternity), and can draw much criticism from fans who may think refs have an easy job. My main criticism is when a hockey (or any other sport) referee will sometimes "let them play." Sunday night against St. Lawrence, the refs decided to let a lot of things go right before their eyes. This can lead to rough play, and even worse, injuries. Dan Shermerhorn was tackled during the first period, causing him to have back spasms (from what I heard through the grapevine) the rest of the night, almost prompting Coach Walsh to keep him out of the game. The only reason why he didn't take him out was another rough hit later in the first period, when Shawn Wansborough was ridden into the boards, causing him to have to be removed from the game. The next day, I saw him hobbling through the student union on crutches. I asked him how his knee was, and got a "NOT GOOD" response. In my opinion, the human element of officiating shouldn't play a part in this when things like this happen right in front of an official's face, and he's looking right at the infraction being committed. A lot of people consider poor officiating to be the main cause of a loss when a team goes down in defeat. I tend to wonder why "poor" officiating may not be blamed for many injuries to a team, especially when the play was especially rough compared to the game the previous night. Sunday night one Maine player got a holding call on a play where a St. Lawrence player got a hitting after the whistle call. These were both good calls in themselves, but my concern was with the Maine player being pinned into the bench, with the refs watching this go on, and no extra misconduct penalties being called. Because a stick was being thrown into the player's chest as a means of keeping him down, and thus not allowing him to defend himself, this could have caused serious injury to him. To not call anything for this is totally unacceptable, especially when the ref is standing there watching it, as he was when he skated over to break up the fight. He had to take the St. L player off the UM player, along with the stick the former was using to pin the latter to the bench. BTW, the Maine player (I think) was Shermerhorn, who had been questionable since the first period due to the hit he took then. This is when I criticize officials, because someone could get seriously hurt. This isn't the pick-up game, where the only rule tends to be "no blood, no foul." If this were the case, why are there officials out there in the first place? With the exception of a few "bad apples," most officials are pretty good and don't deserve the stuff they take from fans. A lot of the time, when the rest of the crowd is booing a disallowed goal for Maine at Alfond, I'm usually keeping my mouth shut, as I usually can see where the call came from. I know Hockey East linesman Mike Tuell, and a lot of times I'll be talking to him on Sunday mornings after church, and I might mention a few calls I didn't understand, or may have agreed with. I usually get a pretty good explanation from him. I encourage everyone to actually talk to anyone you who officiates a particular sport you may have questioned a call in. You may be surprised in what you get back for a response. You also get a better idea of how tough the job is, when you can't see the play, and may let things go, even though something may have been done. There may be no excuse for letting things go that you can see in front of you, but there may be an explanation for things you might not know why they happened. Till later, John -rec. sports student official (basketball and flag football)