The 2018-19 Stanley Cup Playoffs have been filled with egregious missed and botched calls from the referees. The league needs to make a change, and fast.
This year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs has been ridiculous at times with the calls and the non-calls. The NHL has to do something about it. A missed hooking is one thing, but a clear hand-pass in overtime that leads to the winning goal is another story. Even gambling websites know what happened there was wrong.
In the second round, Columbus Blue Jackets forward Artemi Panarin scored a goal in which the puck went out of play and bounced back in. The referees reviewed the goal, but were unable to take the goal back because it was an “unreviewable play”.
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Often times, the biggest rule changes occur when the flaws are pointed out at the highest stage. In 2018 during the NFC championship game, the referees blew a pass-interference call that led to the New Orleans Saints being eliminated. The following season, the NFL announced a new rule which ensured that an incident like that would never happen again.
Also, bad calls in primetime games helped the NFL get their real refs back in 2011. Replacement referees blew numerous calls in the Baltimore Ravens win over the New England Patriots. On Monday Night Football the next evening, the infamous “Fail Mary” occurred. The NFL agreed to a new deal with their refs shortly after.
Well, it’s time that the NHL took a piece out of the NFL’s book to make some big changes for the 2019-2020 season. The league needs to make a choice. They either have to be 100% in on the video replays and being committed to getting the call right, or they have to rely on the referees and expect human error.
Right now, the league has one foot in each option. There are some plays that are still “unreviewable” but they still show the slo-mo replay and literally every angle on both the jumbotron and the television. What’s the point of having everyone know that the call is wrong but the referees are unable to change it because of the rule book?
You either make the call right by making every play reviewable and basically take the refs out of the game, or stop showing the fans the replays and slo-mos and rely on the referees to make their best decisions. If you have human referees on the ice, you have to understand that human error has to come with it. Don’t make it worse by showing every angle to the fans of why the referee missed it, it’s bad for the game.
The NHL needs to pick an option.
- Technology is king. The video room will use every angle to ensure that every call made is correct.
- Human referees = Human error. You give the trust to the referees to call it to the best of their abilities.
- Hybrid. The referees get the final say, but every play is reviewable so that they can fix the blatant mistakes they made.
The league is obsessed with keeping the pace of the game. They hate it when reviews slow the momentum down and they want continuous hockey to keep the fans engaged. If they truly are committed to creating a game that has continuous flow they will keep the technology to a minimum and let the refs dictate it.
While this year’s playoffs has made the referees look bad, what truly ruined their image was that the televisions and jumbotrons showed everyone (including themselves) the missed calls but the rulebook forbade them from making a change. The NHL better make a change this summer or else it will only get worse from here.