One of the biggest topics surrounding sports all year round is the refereeing, and the constant problems caused by bad refereeing decisions throughout the year. The NFL has bad holding and pass interference calls, the NHL has soft roughing calls and misjudges tripping penalties, and the Premier League has botched VAR decisions week in week out. But this year in particular, it has been the NHL referees who have stolen the headlines after constant bad decisions.
Compared to other leagues and sports, the NHL is rough, and played in an extremely physical manner, but as times moves on and changes, decisions regarding the physicality of games have been consistently getting stricter. But it is not the strictness of the calls which is causing problems, it is the misjudgement of calls, and really bad assessments of calls.
The NHL is usually a league with well respected referees and good officiating, but this season in particular there have been some key moments, and game changing situations, ruined by poor officiating. Here are some examples.
Most recently in the NHL, as the Blackhawks took on the Devils, two terrible calls were made by the referee, resulting in two game changing goals. The first call was on the Devils Erik Haula for a trip on Frank Nazar when there in fact was no trip at all. The referee’s misjudgement led to a powerplay goal for the Blackhawks, a power play they should never have had, putting the Blackhawks within one. Later in the game, it was the Blackhawks who played victim to poor refereeing decisions as Landon Slaggert was sent to the box for roughing on an extremely soft call. Announcer and Blackhawks legend Eddie Olczyk said the Blackhawks bench should be ‘Livid’ after the call as yet again it led to a powerplay goal for the Devils. After the game, Blackhawks interim head coach Anders Sorensen said ‘I just don’t know what to gain out of it, when asked about being unvocal on the bench, reiterating the consensus around NHL coaches that the refs do not listen to coaches.
Despite the two calls in the Blackhawks game being minor, one call which shocked the league was the no-goal call on the Islanders as Kyle Palmieri as he put the Islanders in the lead with 10 seconds to go. A pivotal goal for the Islanders playoff hunt, scoring a last second game winning goal, ruined by a terrible call by the refs, may have ruined New York’s hunt for the playoffs. Differently to the Blackhawks, Devils game, this call may have cost the Islanders their season, and will be a call the fans will never forget. With clear and obvious evidence the goal was a legal goal, the Islanders and coach Patrick Roy were livid with the call, and were not given an apology or explanation after the refs decided to stick with the no goal call.
It's becoming clearer and clearer that the NHL referees are taking much less responsibility for their actions, and the refereeing association as a whole are consistently making bad calls with no explanation. Despite only listing these couple of examples, it is unbelievable the amount of bad calls that have been made by the refs this year, and come playoff time next month, things could get a whole lot fiery had bad refereeing decisions be made.
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