Referees intending to blow….

Referee equipment. Not pictured; 'blind-guy cane' from the jerk store

I can’t write about the Leafs today. I just can’t. They’re awful. If I had watched last night’s game something would have been broken. I’m not going to talk about Ian White’s phantom double minor (urge to kill rising) but I will comment on the goal that wasn’t counted because of the referee’s “intent to blow” the game whistle.

In some ass-backwards way, ‘intent to blow’ makes a little bit of sense.  If a goalie has the puck covered and the opposition is whacking at it and the ref means to blow the whistle but the puck goes in a millisecond later, then yeah I can see it.  What has been happening this week (the Detroit goal included) is that the ref decides the play is done, missed that the puck is in the net already for a few seconds and then blows the whistle.  It goes against the spirit of the rules and really it is anti-sport.  The players are taught in every sport at every level to play to the whistle.  If the whistle is not blown, every player on the ice is still playing and so what happens should count, especially goals.

Does anyone know if time gets put back on the clock in a situation like this?

In last night’s Leafs game I think the ref was watching the scrum in front of the net instead of watching the goal, so here’s an idea that the NHL would never consider, partially because it makes sense.  Instead of making a huge change to the rules or the players, why not make a small change that no one will notice and will probably eliminate problems like this. Here’s my proposition:

You have 4 officials on the ice. There is no reason that either a) the near-side linesman drops down to the goal-line to watch the scrum for penalties, freeing up that referee to watch the puck and call goals, or b)the second referee drops down instead of the linesman. In either situation the back linesman would need to move up to cover someone, which is part of their job anyways.  In case A the back linesman would come up to the blue line to cover for the linesman and in option B he would need to be aware of a possible stretch pass to a breakaway and would need to follow that in.  Linesmen cannot blow down penalties or goals, but they can tell referees when a penalty has happened and then it can be called, and can point out a goal, allowing a referee to blow it.

Something else brought up today when I was venting to Duncan_Disorderly about why everything bad has to happen to me and my team!  What if the officials are wary to overturn goals because they’re the ones the next day on all the highlights saying they’re wrong? No one likes to have egg on their face, right?  So while we’re at it let’s eliminate how the refs are wearing microphones and explaining calls.  It’s really unnecessary.  People at the game have the PA announcer, people at home have the play by play guy.  Putting mics on refs seems like something cooked up by the same guys who did Foxtrax. (that’s a burn).