the refs were horrible. I'm saying that as a fan of hockey.
I know it's beating a dead horse....but this really has to get fixed. Just don't know how they do it? There has to be consistency...a level playing field. All to often a missed call here or a BS call there shifts the momentum of a game and it's brutal.
I'm totally okay beating the crap out of this dead horse if you are... You're right it has to be fixed.
The refs are going to miss stuff, it's a quick game, I get that, behind the play stuff or away from the puck stuff - it'll get missed in the course of the game.
I think they need to focus on actually calling the penalties that are in front of them. Period. That's it. Sounds simple right? I guess it's not, I could point to several specific instances last night where a ref was looking directly at a play/player that committed a clear, obvious penalty and chose not to call it. I'm using the word chose, because it's the only thing I can say, the ref is looking right at the infraction. This went both ways last night, so once again, I'm not coming at this as a Pens fan. The refs seem to honestly ref the score and situation, they chose to call or not call based on the score, how much time is left, who got the last penalty called, etc... The only way I know to stop this is for the league to hold the refs accountable. So after a game, if there were big mistakes made by a ref, the league needs to address the issue with the ref, tell him to fix it (call the game better) or they have to let him go. Simple as that.
That's where it needs to start. I've seen a bunch of people online proposing major changes, changing rules, whatever. Maybe some of those ideas are good, but honestly, I don't trust the league to do any of that until they can start calling the game right as it stands now. That has to be the first step, it probably won't happen but maybe someday the NHL will realize the majority of their market is in the US and if they called the rule book as written, they'd probably attract fans and grow the game because the on ice-product would be better.
I want to bring up star player treatment in the NHL right now (whole different issue), but honestly I'm afraid it'll get dismissed as me being a Crosby fanboy.... so I'll refrain.