Post by tostitos on Feb 17, 2008 22:11:32 GMT -4
THERE is no end to bad behaviour in hockey. People like Chris Simon or Steve Downie or Kip Brennan are always doing something terrible.
Count in the men in stripes.
You don't hear much about the consequences of their brutal calls, though we have learned that three AHL officials have been punished after a recent game in Winnipeg.
Referee Francis Charron, an NHL prospect, has been punted from all his league assignments for one month and linesmen Garth Loeppky and Ray Damphousse are out indefinitely.
They were the trio working a Jan. 25 game here, when Charron's lack of rule knowledge got him into big trouble. In that game, he handed out a five-minute penalty for being the aggressor in a fight, as well as the five-minute fighting penalty, to the same player at one time. There is no such thing as five minutes for being the aggressor but Charron wouldn't hear of it and we are told that was the case for days after the incident.
AHL vice-president Jim Mill said he would have no comment on the matter other than to say the three have been dealt with "internally."
Making such a mockery of the rule book is not an isolated incident.
Earlier this season, there were officials handing out just two and three power plays per game. A pro game these days simply does not contain two or three fouls, not even in the NHL where the players have done an excellent job of catching on to the "new" style of rule enforcement.
Wednesday night at MTS Centre, when Iowa was the visiting team, it happened again. Referee Francois St. Laurent showed an amazing talent to bend the rules he's been given, more or less thumbing his nose at his bosses, Jim Mill in the AHL office and more importantly, Steve Walkom at NHL central in Toronto.
How's that, you ask? Well, just have a look at the video clips we've posted with this column on our web site, www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports, and judge for yourself.
There, you will find two examples of a common practice in the AHL today -- holding up a forechecker. In the NHL, this practice is a penalty 99 times out of 100. And in the one occurrence that doesn't get called, Walkom is a very unhappy man and the referees in question will be hearing about it. Always.
In both video clips on our web site, you will see instances of this infraction and in both cases, St. Laurent looked the other way.
These are worse-than-average instances of this foul as the defenceman takes the forward way out of his way and in one case trips him, but no call was made on either play and neither is this call made on so many occasions. So who's the worst offender here, Charron or St. Laurent?
Does it matter? The most important thing is that AHL players are thoroughly confused. We've had conversations with several members of the Moose who have gone back and forth between the AHL team and the NHL parent Vancouver Canucks this season.
To a man, they are always indignant when they return and play a game or two. In the NHL, they are not permitted to put their stick on an opponent's gloves, arms or waists (and above). Just a touch to those areas is pretty much an automatic two minutes, even if there's no tug or actual interference. Reaching out, with a stick or with one free hand, is also an automatic call.
In the AHL, the standard of calls is all over the map, both in judgment and in supposedly black-and-white rules.
This is not the way the AHL wants it. This is certainly not the way the NHL wants it. But this is reality. It's not very realistic to hope for better today. A few referees try their best, especially when they work an AHL game right after they work an NHL one. But it's inevitable that they can't see everything that goes on and so more and more gets missed.
The two-man system might actually be a pipe dream for the cost-conscious AHL, but when there's no help for the referee, no tangible interest from the NHL or its teams, nor any on-site coaching as there so often isn't, who's going to tell men like Francois St. Laurent that he's doing a lousy job?
He can do better work. We've seen it happen. But right now, he, his colleagues and the entire AHL are set up to fail in this respect. Developing bad habits and bad practices is not much for a development league to crow about.
Count in the men in stripes.
You don't hear much about the consequences of their brutal calls, though we have learned that three AHL officials have been punished after a recent game in Winnipeg.
Referee Francis Charron, an NHL prospect, has been punted from all his league assignments for one month and linesmen Garth Loeppky and Ray Damphousse are out indefinitely.
They were the trio working a Jan. 25 game here, when Charron's lack of rule knowledge got him into big trouble. In that game, he handed out a five-minute penalty for being the aggressor in a fight, as well as the five-minute fighting penalty, to the same player at one time. There is no such thing as five minutes for being the aggressor but Charron wouldn't hear of it and we are told that was the case for days after the incident.
AHL vice-president Jim Mill said he would have no comment on the matter other than to say the three have been dealt with "internally."
Making such a mockery of the rule book is not an isolated incident.
Earlier this season, there were officials handing out just two and three power plays per game. A pro game these days simply does not contain two or three fouls, not even in the NHL where the players have done an excellent job of catching on to the "new" style of rule enforcement.
Wednesday night at MTS Centre, when Iowa was the visiting team, it happened again. Referee Francois St. Laurent showed an amazing talent to bend the rules he's been given, more or less thumbing his nose at his bosses, Jim Mill in the AHL office and more importantly, Steve Walkom at NHL central in Toronto.
How's that, you ask? Well, just have a look at the video clips we've posted with this column on our web site, www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports, and judge for yourself.
There, you will find two examples of a common practice in the AHL today -- holding up a forechecker. In the NHL, this practice is a penalty 99 times out of 100. And in the one occurrence that doesn't get called, Walkom is a very unhappy man and the referees in question will be hearing about it. Always.
In both video clips on our web site, you will see instances of this infraction and in both cases, St. Laurent looked the other way.
These are worse-than-average instances of this foul as the defenceman takes the forward way out of his way and in one case trips him, but no call was made on either play and neither is this call made on so many occasions. So who's the worst offender here, Charron or St. Laurent?
Does it matter? The most important thing is that AHL players are thoroughly confused. We've had conversations with several members of the Moose who have gone back and forth between the AHL team and the NHL parent Vancouver Canucks this season.
To a man, they are always indignant when they return and play a game or two. In the NHL, they are not permitted to put their stick on an opponent's gloves, arms or waists (and above). Just a touch to those areas is pretty much an automatic two minutes, even if there's no tug or actual interference. Reaching out, with a stick or with one free hand, is also an automatic call.
In the AHL, the standard of calls is all over the map, both in judgment and in supposedly black-and-white rules.
This is not the way the AHL wants it. This is certainly not the way the NHL wants it. But this is reality. It's not very realistic to hope for better today. A few referees try their best, especially when they work an AHL game right after they work an NHL one. But it's inevitable that they can't see everything that goes on and so more and more gets missed.
The two-man system might actually be a pipe dream for the cost-conscious AHL, but when there's no help for the referee, no tangible interest from the NHL or its teams, nor any on-site coaching as there so often isn't, who's going to tell men like Francois St. Laurent that he's doing a lousy job?
He can do better work. We've seen it happen. But right now, he, his colleagues and the entire AHL are set up to fail in this respect. Developing bad habits and bad practices is not much for a development league to crow about.