The judges who sit in Toronto are an embarrassment in all of sports. And you know I am no Islander fan.
I don't know if they are an embarrassment in all of sports, but I do wish reviews would be done by the referees in house. That being said, I don't really like reviews, because mistakes are part of the game ... players as well as referees.
jams, very diplomatic. yes, every facet of sports is based on mistakes. in fact, some teams, some players, some refs make more than others.
They need to stop trying to take the mistakes out of the game, because it's never going to make the game perfect. In my opinion, the replay makes the referees lazy, because they know if they miss a goal the review will bail them out. It also takes away from the natural flow of the game. Teams are forced to stand around on the ice, waiting for the results of the review coming from Toronto, when they could just move on and play the game. Just because we have the technology to review, doesn't mean we should. And anyway, how often do they screw it up in there Toronto office? When is a goal a goal, or not a goal? As a Ranger fan, how many times have we seen goals disallowed for a kicking motion (or something else), and the next night (game) the very same kicking motion results in a good goal against? Get rid of the replay, and make the refs more accountable, or at least have the referees do their own reviews in house.
I agree about the inconsistency jam, if Steen's goal was scored by a Ranger you know Toronto disallows it, has already happened this year. My problem with the officiating is the number of dirty plays missed or worse seen and uncalled. Most refs seems to look at the jersey number before making a call, Backes hit on Kreider was clearly high and to the head, whether the ref 20 feet from the play notices the butt end is irrelevant, should have still been a penalty for a hit to the head. This crap happens all the time to Rangers over the years, there's a long list of Rangers who have missed play time due to uncalled penalties.
Harris Poll shows that Professional Hockey/NHL is the 6th ranking sport for 2013 by viewing Americans. That's one up from 2012. Last year NHL leaped ahead of NCCA Basketball to 6th position. NHL wants a larger American audience; hence, the Stadium Games....this year. What........next year? Hockey fans make up 5% of American sports viewers. We may be hardcore hockey fans, but hockey still is not popular. NHL continues to lose the popularity contest. 5. Pro Basketball 4. Auto Racing 3. College Football 2. Pro Baseball 1. Pro Football
I would like to see that same pole among top 20 cities in the US. The people voting in the south will vote for NASCAR and college football as that is huge in the south. that would bring the overall percentage down in the nation. Hockey will never be huge in the south.
I agree with you completely in that the one ice officials should be the ones doing the reviews themselves. Football, baseball and basketball leaves the reviews up to the officials. There's no reason this can't be done in the NHL.
When a game is played by humans, and refereed by humans their will always be inconsistencies. I can deal with that, because by the end of the year the inconsistencies usually average out.
Lets break up whatever job security they have in Toronto, and let them go get real jobs. I'm tired of waiting around for them to consistently rule against the Rangers on whether their was a kicking motion, if it fully crossed the line or not, or whether clock ran out before the puck went in. They are inconsistent, and because of these inconsistencies, they need to be let go.
