Gregson and officiating
Bill Clare
A number of folks have been presenting their views on the job Terry Gregson
did in game one of the Buffalo-Boston series. It's beginning to look like
it might evolve into another flame war.
I mailed someone directly with more or less the same comments I am going
to post here.
We have all heard the excuse the officials give for not calling penalties
during playoff games; they don't want to be the deciding factor in the game.
They want the players to decide what happens.
I contend that the referee sets the tone for the game, no matter what. If
an official decides he will call every last trip, hook, and grab, then the
team with superior skating skills that game more than likely will win. If
an official decides he will take the night off, the team that holds up the
scoring chances the best will win.
I contend that the team that wins a game is the team that is most suited to
the tone of game being played, of which the referee plays an important part
in setting. This should surprise no one, and neither should the results of
the first two Boston-Buffalo games upon applying this logic: Buffalo, with a
strong power play and strong skating players, adapted well to Gregson's game, a
tightly called game, and won game 1. The Bruins, with their mindbogglingly
endless supply of grinders, adapted well to the loose game of McCreary,
and won game 2.
This is (probably) why defense wins in the playoffs; because more infractions
are committed unpenalized, and players are held up from scoring.
Specifically applying the above to the Boston-Buffalo series:
In my opinion, game 1 was not any more poorly officiated than game 2 was.
Just different. I did not see the second disallowed goal, but certainly the
first one could have gone either way; some refs will call it and some won't.
I can't see how a Bruin fan could be mad about the disallowed goals and not
mention the penalties called on Oates in the third period of game 2 (when both
he and Hawerchuk slashed each other enough times to earn enough minors to
sit out the next two games; only Oates sat at all) and on Poulin in the
overtime (what on earth did Poulin do that was worse than any grab of Bob
Sweeney's or of any tackle by Tony Tanti?)
(An aside: to those who claim Poulin was pushed into
the crease, I remember that in the beginning of the season a big to-do
was raised about this new rule because no provision was made to allow for
people being pushed into the crease; a penalty would still be called. So
it doesn't matter whether or not Poulin was pushed, what matters is whether
or not he actually was in the crease.)
And finally, back to Oates in the third period. I say, if you're going to
cheat, don't get pissed off if you get caught. That means that if thirty
trips and slashes are missed before yours, don't get pissed when you get
caught. After all, it's against the rules. When the penalty was called on
Oates for slashing Hawerchuk, he went straight to the box. No complaints.
And that's it.
billc
--
Bill Clare, Eastman Kodak Company Internet: cl...@bissun.kodak.com
m/c 35424 -- 901 Elmgrove Road Phone: (716) 726-7421
Rochester, New York 14653-5424
Any opinions expressed herein belong to me and not to my employer.
Ken Harford - Corp. Network Operations
>
>
> I contend that the referee sets the tone for the game, no matter what. If
> an official decides he will call every last trip, hook, and grab, then the
> team with superior skating skills that game more than likely will win. If
> an official decides he will take the night off, the team that holds up the
> scoring chances the best will win.
>
> I contend that the team that wins a game is the team that is most suited to
> the tone of game being played, of which the referee plays an important part
> in setting. This should surprise no one, and neither should the results of
> the first two Boston-Buffalo games upon applying this logic: Buffalo, with a
> strong power play and strong skating players, adapted well to Gregson's game, a
> tightly called game, and won game 1. The Bruins, with their mindbogglingly
> endless supply of grinders, adapted well to the loose game of McCreary,
> and won game 2.
>
> This is (probably) why defense wins in the playoffs; because more infractions
> are committed unpenalized, and players are held up from scoring.
Bill I couldn't agree more with you on how a game is actually played and officiated.
The referee does set the tone for the game and then the players go on from there.
However, this is the problem, I beleive that about 75% to 80% of the NHL refs are
not consistent about their calls. I can't tell you how many times I have seen a
ref call a game between two teams one night and see the same ref the next night
with two different teams call a completely different game. I say if a ref calls a
game a certain way and is consistent about it than the players and the fans have no
beef when he makes calls his way. No problem there, and I don't care how bad the calls
are if they are consistent and the players know what to expect from this guy. But,
in most of the cases they decide to put the whistle away some nights and other nights
they call you off as soon as you hit the ice from the dressing room. The players
don't know what to expect so they try to get away with as much as they can. All teams
do it and it has become part of the game. A little stick here and little elbow there
run the goalie once see if you get a call on it. I say if a player knew a ref calls
alot of stick penalties than in my mind you won't see alot of stick work
in that game. Common sense!!!
The only problem I had with Gregson besides being a Bruin fan was that not that he
called Oates on that slash or that he called Poulin on the crease violation he
should have, but I saw lots of that during the night and he decided in his
infinite wisdom to call it there. No consistency!! All of a sudden the league left the
crease rule dangling after calling it if you were in the same zip code of the crease
the first part of the season and then I saw alot of goalies getting whacked again.
Some penalties get called in the third period and others don't. Like if you pull out a
gun and shoot somebody then you might wind up in the box for two minutes in the third
period of a playoff game.
I'm just trying to make the point that I don't think that Refs have some vendettas
against some teams. I just think alot of teams have trouble deciding what Mr. Zebra
will call tonight!! And personally I think and I will probably get crucified for this
but I think the two most consistent are Andy Van Hellemond and Ron Hoggarth!!! Not
alot of consistency but I know they call some penalties all the time and you can
expect that when you do that certain thing and they catch you, you are going to sit
down for two mintues.
I still think with all it's faults that Hockey still is the most exciting
and entertaining of sports today!!!
Ken