The NHL’s Black Eye is the whining, not the officials

Bruce Cassidy talked about officiating being the NHL’s black eye. But ironically, it’s the whining, not the refs, who are the NHL’s black eye.

Everyone needs to stop. Really. I’m not talking about the fans. When calls don’t go our teams’ way, it’s our right – nay, our responsibility – to scream at the referees to get it right. What I and many fans are sick of is professional NHL players and coaches blasting referees in media scrums after the heat of the game is over.

Look no further than Game 5, when Noel Acciari got taken down by Tyler Bozak in the third period, just before Tuukka Rask uncharacteristically let a bad shot by David Perron slide through his pads.

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The Bruins, perhaps forgetting that hockey is comprised of hundreds of moments where penalties may or may not be called, continued to complain about one no-call after the game. The team’s head coach, Bruce Cassidy called it a “black eye” on the league.

Acciari himself called it “embarrassing.” However, the director of officiating, Stephen Walkom, accurately assessed the referee’s place in the game of hockey.

“There are hundreds of judgment calls in every game. The official on the play, he viewed it, and he didn’t view it as a penalty at the time.”

So who was the official? Was it the kid across the street? Was it Tim Donaghy? The embarrassment in question was none other than Kelly Sutherland. Yes, the Kelly Sutherland with six Stanley Cups under his belt, Olympic medal games as well as the World Cup of Hockey.

Not only is he experienced but has given favorable judgments in important games to the Bruins especially. It was Kelly Sutherland who stood idly as Brad Marchand repeatedly punched the more talented and respected Daniel Sedin to get under the veteran’s skin in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals. The Bruins went on to win as we all know. Maybe they wouldn’t have if Sutherland hadn’t kept the whistle in his pocket.

Cassidy, a rather inexperienced head coach at the NHL level head coach and apparently unaware of Sutherland’s resume, did not stop. He went further to say that it was the opposing head coach, Craig Berube’s comments that influenced not only the no-call but the officials’ judgment as well.

The Blues are in no way responsible for a lack of calls. But they are just as guilty of complaining as the Bruins are. Head coach Craig Berube responded to a 7-2 drubbing in Game 3 by blasting the number of penalties called on his team. What was “embarrassing” about his comments was the fact that his team had one more powerplay than did Boston.

Remember Timo Meier’s hand pass in Game 3 of that series? When the referees made their decision, The Blues leadership followed the referees down the ice as the refs were going to their locker room, in a rather intimidating fashion. They were in the referees’ faces, heatedly yelling at them as the officials calmly told them there was nothing more to discuss, the game was over.

Blues GM Doug Armstrong even went and berated them at the door of their locker room. As far as the public is aware, there were no fines for the Blues’ “embarrassing” behavior in the wake of that loss. Nor have there been any fines to anyone abusing officials made public in the 2019 playoffs.

In so many years of watching playoff hockey, I haven’t seen nearly as many players and coaches complaining about calls that don’t go their way. The media scrum after Game 7 between the San Jose Sharks and Vegas Golden Knights was the most absurd thing I’ve seen in that regard, perhaps in all my days watching the sport.

ICYMI, the Golden Knights were assessed a cross-checking penalty which could have been called on one of two players. Cody Eakin and Paul Stastny double-teamed Joe Pavelski who fell to the ice bleeding, and the referees properly decided that was a major infraction.

Instead of defending the ensuing powerplay, the Golden Knights remained up in arms over the call, Gerard Gallant yelled at the refs instead of his team, and San Jose deservedly went on to win.

From the moment the penalty was called to the Shark’s overtime goal was hands-down the most entertaining hockey I’ve seen ever. It was drama, mayhem. One team couldn’t get it together and their opponents made them look like youth that were just too emotional to win a game seven. And they were.

An understandably frustrated Jonathan Marchessault went on to say that the game and series were “stolen” from them. As if, the utter lack of defense displayed by Vegas was not to blame. Or that they took a stupid, blatant penalty late in the game.

According to Marchessault, those at fault were the referees, not themselves. [Note: referees do have the option to assess a major penalty after the fact if a serious injury is revealed to be the result of the penalty in question]. The situation got even crazier when GM George McPhee released a statement that the NHL had “apologized” to the team for getting the call wrong.

It appears the NHL is no longer coming down on players, coaches, or even general managers who rip officials but rather, apologizing for referees decision-making. What is a referee’s job if not to make decisions? The only other purpose they serve is to break up scrums when they get too violent. If you question experienced, knowledgeable referees’ decision-making, how do you suggest we call the games from now on? Video review? That was Marchessault’s suggestion. I hope to all things holy we have less, not more video review in the coming seasons.

The fact is,the NHL used to fine anyone who ripped the referees for doing their jobs. The most recent example I could find was back in 2015 when Brandon Prust, then a Montreal Canadien, was fined $5,000 for criticizing the officials in a series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He apologized the very next day.

This is not to say that, in 2019, the whining disease has spread all over the league, it hasn’t. In the Western Conference semifinals, Gabriel Landeskog was deemed offside on a play that was reviewed. The official on the ice saw it correctly, whereas the video review somehow how showed a conflicting visual. Landeskog was called offside when he was coming off the ice for a change. The goal the Avalanche scored on the play was erased by the league’s tool to undermine officials.

Was Landeskog upset? Probably. However, as captain of his team, he decided to take the high road. Instead of stoking the flames in a postgame media scrum, he had this to say about the officials’ decision:

“I don’t envy their position at all to make that call in a Game 7 like this. . . I’m going to take the blame for that because I could have done a lot of things different. Ultimately, my skates were on the ice.”

The reason he replied so calmly as opposed to Marchessault, Cassidy and the like, was because the game was over. Being emotional wouldn’t somehow give his team another shot. It would only call the integrity of the game into question.

Until we have a league full of players who are gentlemen like Gabe Landeskog, we can expect fresh-faced weasels like Bruce Cassidy and Jonathan Marchessault to push a false-narrative that referees are “embarrassing” the game and are somehow no longer qualified to officiate. It’s time the NHL started handing out fines for this sort of thing. It’s the biggest “black eye” in the game right now.