Gary Bettman has a somewhat Trumpian view of the NHL’s officiating situation. “The officials in this league are the best in the world, I believe – not just in hockey, but in any sport,” he said.
Many—including this writer—believe the exact opposite. You don’t see NFL referees afraid to throw a flag late in a critical game. You don’t see MLB umpires afraid to call strike three just because it’s the ninth inning. You don’t see NBA officials putting their always-busy whistles away as the timeclock winds down.
Nor do you see the NHL issuing a report on officiating mistakes after each game the way the NBA does. And don’t hold your breath waiting for the day the NHL asks their hired zebras to face the media and be accountable for their decisions. In fact, the NHL is so paranoid, they long ago abandoned the practice of identifying their referees by name on the back of their sweaters.
What you do see in the NHL is referees starting each new season with somewhat strict rule interpretations that are noticeably relaxed by mid-season and reduced to mere suggestions by playoff time. At which point, there are three rule books in play. One for each period—each less strict than the previous one. The rule book for third periods and overtime periods may as well be a single page in length which reads: “Put your whistle away. Do not do anything that will impact the outcome of the game.”
Which, of course, impacts the outcome anyway—just in favour of the wrong team. Not only is the ultimate result steered in the wrong direction, this cowardly approach to game management also forces hockey lovers to endure what seems like never-ending, post-whistle scrums, complete with face-washing, behind-the-back strangulation attempts, and useless trash-talking.
And of course, the root cause of the problem is easily identified. Lousy referees eventually grow old and retire. Some are then retained as referee supervisors, where they ultimately teach the newcomers how to be equally awful, equally gutless, and equally guilty of impacting the game by refusing to impact the game—turning bad habits into institutional tradition.
Rinse and repeat.
The NHL could fix the problem if they really wanted to. Instead, they prefer to trot out Gary Bettman for his annual state-of-the-union charade when he yet again gets to pretend there’s “nothing to see here.”
He’s almost right. After all, in his world, when a key game is on the line, his officials have been told there’s nothing to see, or say, or do.
