Hey Ref… You Blew it (Video)

Being an on-ice official in hockey is a hard job. Everything happens at a high rate of speed.  It’s a fact, mistakes will be made. It’s also easy to nitpick every decision the on-ice officials make. I touched on this subject this week.

No one league is immune to this either. Even the NHL refs make critical mistakes, too. Over the year, I have compiled a montage of a few examples of calls that could have gone another way.

This year the NCHC has had a tough time with the on ice calls. I have documented some of it.  Over the year, I have compiled a montage of a few examples of calls that could have gone another way. You’ll also see that a few of these blown calls have been costly.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa4MxhdwWWE]

Here’s last night’s bad call of the night. and Bronco head coach Andy Murray lost it. After watching the replay, you can see that he had a very good reason to be upset.

Here’s the reason that I want to see Major Penalties reviewed via video. Sometimes with the speed of the game, these call are made incorrectly.

Nothing like a little embellishment to sell the call. Last season, UND head coach Dave Hakstol was asked about embellishment and this is what he had to say about the subject.

“It’s a huge problem,” he said. “But nobody wants to address it. Teams are being rewarded for embellishing and diving. That’s been the case over the last several years. It’s getting worse. Until we want to address it as a body of coaches on a consolidated basis as leagues, it will get worse.”

Sure I am critical of the refs, I admit that. I also think the refs have to be better with the review of goals.

The Harvard Crimson could have been playing for a Beanpot title if the right call had been made on the ice. What’s even more puzzling, this happened in an NHL arena that has great over-head camera capabilities.