It never fails. Never.
Every single day one reporter or another — not to mention endless numbers of fans — beef about officiating.
And, if the Rangers were in the playoffs right this minute, you’d be hearing about this play or that infraction being missed or called incorrectly.
What The Maven has tried to do is find an impartial, rational critic who can simply explain this vexing situation.
My choice is Vic Morren, co-host with Neil Smith, on the insightful NHL Wraparound, The Maven’s favorite podcast above all.
Exhibit A took place last night after his favorite Alberta team was beaten. Edmonton columnist David Staples began ranting about the officiating in the Oilers-Vegas series. (Of course, it was sinful that the Knights won.
Which brings me to the question and Vic to the answer: So what does Morren think? Listen up.
“Everything is so magnified at this point,” Vic explains. “The default for many teams is officiating and Vegas may have a point regarding the Arvidsson/McNab play in overtime on Thursday.
“In reality, teams have so many self-inflicted wounds that officiating is a convenient outlet.
“The game is lightning fast, everything is split second and officials can’t outskate the puck or players so stuff gets missed. I’ll give you another example:
“In the case of the Ekblad hit on Hagel, Marchand and Glendening skated in the referee’s field of vision for the entire sequence of that incident. He’d turned to look back and was blocked.
“They miss stuff? Sure do. As long as humans are playing and officiating, it comes with the territory.
“And when robots start calling games, people will have problems with that too.”
The Maven adds: There’s no question but that the NHL works overtime trying to make the officiating as accurate as possible and will continue to do so. The following example might clarify the discussion just a bit:
One day, while I was having lunch with Commissioner Bettman, I lodged a complaint about officiating in a game I had recently worked. Upon hearing that, the league’s boss pulled a letter out of an envelope and read what was a tough-tough rip on NHL officiating, but without telling me who wrote the critique.
“Take a guess who wrote this and when,” the Commissioner said.
At the time outspoken Brian Burke was g.m. at Hartford. “It was written by Brian Burke,” I snapped. “Last week.”
Bettman smiled and said; “Wrong guy; wrong team, wrong time.”
He handed me the missive and at the bottom I realized how wrong I had been. The letter was written in 1932 by Lester Patrick, manager and coach of the New York Rangers!
When it comes to whistle-blowers, nothing changes!
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