St. Louis Blues: Wherever The Blues Go They Take The Refs With Them

The NHL refs seem to be officiating St. Louis Blues players tighter than other teams in the league, at least to my jaundiced eye.

This not to say that the refs are at the root of the St. Louis Blues problems, or even really a major contributing factor.  Nor it is to take all the blame off of the players for taking bad penalties, too many men and offensive zone penalties most notably, David Perron and Joel Edmundson come to mind as the Blues biggest offenders.

It just looks to me, and my biased eyes, that the Blues are given no quarter or slack on whether they are assessed a penalty.  As any fan knows the refs have a good deal of latitude in what constitutes an infraction on many penalties in the NHL.

When you watch the games, you see a Blues player called for what is by the letter of the rule a penalty but is often a minor infraction regarding severity.  Then you will see similar, or worse actions by the opposing team go uncalled, consistency is the golden rule in reffing.

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I am not implying a determined bias on the part of the refs, but perhaps an unintended one against a team that is playing poorly.

Also once a team gets a reputation among the officials for taking stupid penalties, especially the big three hooking, holding, and slashing, they don’t get the benefit of the doubt.

There is an old saying in hockey that young players skate and old players reach.  Meaning that old players don’t keep their feet moving like they should and make up for it by stick work, or reaching. Much like when the Blues get back on their heals in games.

In those incidents, they start hooking, grabbing, and slashing and start racking up penalties.  So when they are playing well and skating hard, anytime their stick is where it shouldn’t be they don’t get the same break better teams and or players receive. Thus the unintended bias creeps in.

While frustrating to watch, it can be crushing to a teams momentum and explains some of the come from behind woes.  It is challenging to come back when you are short handed more than your opponent.

When I was coaching, and the team was getting upset about the officiating; I tried to explain that the officiating is like playing a game outside in the weather.  You can’t do anything about the weather good or bad and have to adjust your game accordingly.

So whether the Blues are being called on a tighter standard by the refs or I am just imagining things, they need to adjust their game accordingly.  Either control the instinct to use their sticks up high on their opponents or skate harder, so the temptation is not there to use it.

Like the line from the  Crowded House song “wherever you go, you take the weather with you,” The Blues need to realize that no matter where they play the refs are going to call the penalties based on their past reputation, deserved or not.