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The Puck Stops Here

NHL Officiating On Trial

by PuckStopsHere on 01/13/10 at 10:24 AM ET
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In order for the NHL to be a credible sports league, the impression must exist that teams decide who wins the games on the ice.  There cannot be an impression that officials (either on or off ice) can decide these things.  Reality is that decisions by officials often impact NHL games.  As long as any influence is random and cancels out in the longterm, it is an acceptable situation for the NHL, but this is not an acceptable position for the NHL public.  Many members of the public must believe that teams are the only factor in deciding who wins games in order for the league to maintain credibility.

That is why the allegations that referee Stephane Auger was out to get Alexandre Burrows of the Vancouver Canucks in Monday night’s game versus Nashville (which Nashville won 3-2) are serious.  It opens the door to fans who had previously believed that the players decide games to the idea that officials play a much bigger role in the outcomes. 

Burrows maintains that Auger came to him before the game and warned him that he had made Auger look bad in the December 8th game between Nashville and Vancouver (Nashville won this 4-2).  Auger called a five minute charging penalty and a game misconduct against Jarred Smithson of Nashville for a hit on Burrows, which replay suggests Burrows embellished the hit and faked an injury. 

In the third period of Monday’s Nashville-Vancouver game, Auger called a diving penalty and an interference call on Burrows.  Nashville scored the game winning goal on the subsequent power play (which was a two man power play due to a Henrik Sedin tripping penalty).  Both were questionable calls that Burrows maintains were intended to “make up” for the poor call in the December Nashville-Vancouver game.  When Burrows came back onto the ice, Auger gave him a game misconduct and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when Burrows attempted to confront him about the earlier questionable calls.  Burrows had scored both of Vancouver’s goals in the loss.  The game winning goal was scored while Alexandre Burrows was serving a penalty, which was allegedly a phantom called made to satisfy the personal vendetta of the referee against him.  Referee Stephane Auger played a big role in the final result of the game.

It is well known that officiating hockey is a subjective business.  It has to be a subjective business.  There is no reasonable way to keep the flow of the game and maintain order without making some subjective calls.  Those who closely watch the game know that certain players have earned bad reputations around the league and tend to get called on more questionable penalties than those veterans who have earned stellar reputations (i.e. Sean Avery will get called for a questionable penalty when Pavel Datsyuk might not).  This is a well known bias of officials.  It is a generally unavoidable consequence of the subjectivity of officiating.  The problem is that Auger’s case with Alexandre Burrows is pre-meditated (he warned Burrows in advance) and is not merely a subconscious effect on a game, but one that he was consciously trying to make.  This is a situation that probably exists more often than we know about it, except referees do not warn the player in advance and the situation never gains the light of day.

For his part as a whistle blower in making the allegations against Stephane Auger, Alexandre Burrows has been given a $2500 fine.  This looks bad for the NHL.  They are punishing a player for bringing to light a problem with officiating.  The effect here is to muzzle anyone who sees such problems in the future.  The NHL has long attempted to hide information that does not suit them from media attention.  Fining a player for bringing some to light makes them look like a totalitarian organization that is trying to silence any dissent.

There was another issue in the news yesterday that showed that the NHL’s off-ice officials are not beyond trying to affect the outcome of games.  Last Thursday in a game between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, which Philadelphia won 7-4, there was a disputed goal scored by Simon Gagne.  When the disputed goal went to video replay, the Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh channel that was carrying the game forwarded all replay angles to the league headquarters except for the one that clearly showed that Gagne had scored.  As a result, Gagne’s goal was not counted.  This didn’t change the outcome of the hockey game, but it is also serious.  FSN Pittsburgh employee Lowell MacDonald Jr (son of a former Penguins player) has been suspended by FSN for his actions.

Officiating, both on and off the ice, does change the outcome of games.  This is unavoidable.  As long as it is done subconsciously and without intent and tends to balance out over the longterm, this is acceptable.  There are two recent examples that appear to be conscious attempts with intent to change the outcome of games.  This is not acceptable.  The worst part is that it makes the more casual fan aware of this problem and more likely to suspect that officiating caused his team any hardship (when in most cases this was not the reality).

Filed in: | The Puck Stops Here | Permalink
 Tags: Alexandre+Burrows, Lowell+MacDonald+Jr, Philadelphia+Flyers, Pittsburgh+Penguins, Simon+Gagne, Stephane+Auger, Vancouver+Canucks,

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The Puck Stops Here was founded during the 2004/05 lockout as a place to rant about hockey. The original site contains over 1000 posts, some of which were also published on FoxSports.com.

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