St. Louis Blues: NHL Must Get Officiating Under Control

The Blues/Blackhawks’ game two was a prime example of the problem with today’s officiating.

Perhaps, and I use that word heavily, the offside call against Jori Lehtera was correct but apparently the NHL wasn’t even using the camera that seemed to prove them correct.

Instead of that crisp image, which still could have been ruled inconclusive and most likely has at times during the season, the NHL used some weird, grainy film that looked more like something you would see trying to analyze who shot JFK. All they needed was some suit saying “back…and to the left.”

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In addition to that call, there was the bogus dual penalties given to Andrew Ladd for crosschecking and Robby Fabbri for embellishment. While Darren Pang would disagree, I have long said that there should not be two penalties in most instances.

It is either the actual penalty or the player dived/embellished. To call both is just gutless officials not wanting to impact the situation, though they usually do. Instead of having a powerplay at a key point in the contest, the St. Louis Blues were forced to play four-on-four.

To make matters worse, the officials actually do give a penalty to Ladd for the crosscheck on that play but then on the goal that made the game 2-1 Chicago, apparently it is legal to push the goaltender into the net.

I’ve heard arguments on both sides. NBC analyst, Anson Carter said it was easily a good goal. By no means. His argument was that Brian Elliott was just going backward and Andrew Shaw got to the puck first.

Firstly, Shaw was basically on top of Elliott and if you really watch it, Elliott is going toward the left and then suddenly starts sliding into the net. What did that if not Shaw? Magic?

The Blues own Bernie Federko tried to reason that it was Kevin Shattenkirk that pushed Shaw, but again if you look closely, Shattenkirk misses on the initial shove and Shaw still falls into the goaltender.

The problem is there isn’t any consistency. Fans know it.

Even analysts know it.

Again, the problem is consistency. There is none. And that leads to us fans coming up with unfounded and unsavory reasons.

Next: Is There Really a Conspiracy?

When cooler heads prevail and sanity returns, we can be rational and realize that it isn’t truly in the NHL’s (or any league) best interest to conspire against teams.

Yet, when it happens over and over and over again, it gets harder to convince yourself that the insane theory isn’t possibly correct.

Again, we see things through fan eyes but there is an unmistakable pattern that teams from big markets like Chicago and Los Angeles seem to get more calls in their favor when playing smaller teams like the Blues.

But before fans of those teams say it’s just sour grapes, it hasn’t just been the Blues hampered by perceived bad calls. Not long ago, Joel Quenneville stormed out of a press conference because he could no longer understand the rules of a game when one of his goals was disallowed for kicking when it appeared accidental.

Hockey is an incredibly difficult game to officiate.  It’s probably the fastest game in the world, with some of the best athletes in the world and it’s played on ice and the players have what amount to weapons in their hands in the right circumstances.

I have a lot of empathy with officials because they have one of the most unforgiving jobs in the world.  Everyone thinks it is ok to scream and threaten and belittle and curse when the officials are usually trying to get things right.

But in hockey it seems like they aren’t.  They’ve included more video replay and it seems to have made things worse.  They have more officials on the ice and there seem to be more incorrect calls than ever.

All sports at some time or the other have been accused of favoring teams, but the NHL seems to take the cake in this instance.  Fans have all suspected that Chicago holds a lot of favor due to their inclusion in so many outdoor games as well as the northeastern corridor teams, but now people even believe it applies to on ice matters.

The league has to do something about it.  There has to be more accountability and a more defined standard for what constitutes certain calls.

There will always be a bit of inconsistency.  It’s human nature.  However when one single official can call the exact same play differently on separate occasions and it has nothing to do with positioning or being screened etc. then there needs to be changes.

Next: Blues Fans Big Reason For Success

Whether it is real or perceived, fans across the league feel that officials are impacting the game in a negative way too often. As TSN said, it is affecting the spirit of the game. We all love hockey and want our teams to win.

We may not like it, but we can actually deal with a team being better on a night and defeating whoever we support. When the zebras actually make you feel like that was not the case, it just isn’t the way games are supposed to be.