Refs this series!

[Opie 308]

I know these threads always pop up when we think the refs are garbage, so I thought I would make one for them doing a better than crap job.

I think the officials are doing a great job of letting them play "playoff" hockey.

There have been some no calls that I think both teams can be pissed about (more the ducks than wings after last night).

But all in all, they are letting them play, the game is becoming physical, it is getting faster and faster with each period.

There haven't been a lot of whistles (or lack of whistle) that have left me wondering what in the hell.

The refs seem to be on their game early in the playoffs which is a good sign!

Thoughts?

[b.shanafan14 733]

Wrote this just now in the Dekeyser injury thread, but its relevant here:

Its incredible to see the level of douchebaggery permiate the entire Ducks line up. Started with Pronger, then the supposed classy Scott Neidermeyer, then supposedly classy but always overly bitchy Teemu, and now even Saku Koivu was stepping over the line. After Abdelkader got stuffed into the boards from behind and was shaken up, Beleski was standing over him jawing until Pasha stepped in. And Souray was out of control all night with little to keep him in check.

Its incredible that the penalties were nearly even despite the fact that for about the span of a period the Ducks were in full goon mode. Its the same philosophy its always been in Anaheim: goon all you want, the refs will only call so many penalties and if we end up with one more PK then the opposition but can manage to injure or otherwise shake them, the juice was worth the squeeze.

The refs have never had the balls to call the Ducks consistently. Eventually, they worry about the PP discrepancy and put the whistles away.

While I hate PP laden games, and I do wish the Wings could police the ice themselves like in the good ol' days, Ducks M.O. has always been to goon, and toe/cross the line with full knowledge that the refs may call them for more penalties, but not nearly has many as they have earned. We saw that again last night.

The Wings got called for legitimate trips, hooks, and holds. The Ducks did enough gooning that the refs eventually stopped calling everything, not only crosschecks and roughings, but even some of the blatant interference plays.

[Opie 308]

LOL,

and I will repost my reply, I guess we could have just done this in the Dekeyser injury thread!

But I think the WIngs got away with a lot early on, a few hits from behind, a slash on a stick, a few tackles that would have drawn a flag in the NFL!

[Resetti 44]

Every fan base accuses the other team of "gooning it up," or that there's some league bias for or against a team... it's almost pointless to debate specifics. They're going to miss calls both ways, so the most important thing is that they maintain a level of control that prevents things from becoming truly dangerous on the ice (e.g. player violently boarded that doesn't result in a penalty so headhunting begins in earnest).

[jollymania 162]

Teh no calls on the dives are pretty despicable but i like that there were some hooks and holds and slashes by both sides that went uncalled.

[b.shanafan14 733]

Teh no calls on the dives are pretty despicable but i like that there were some hooks and holds and slashes by both sides that went uncalled.

For me, the dives on the part of the Ducks (which are getting pretty frequent and obvious) make it even harder for the refs to call hooks, holds, etc. against them. While I do agree the Wings had a lot of stuff let go early on, its hard to call some of this stuff when the Ducks are flopping anytime someone breathes on them and the entire building immediately calls for blood.

It could be argued that the Ducks really get their "money's worth" with their penalties, ranging from the gooning, to boarding, the hooks and slashes. While the Wings definitely got away with plenty early, once the line was established with the limited whistles, the Ducks really took advantage. When you see one or two roughing or blatant, violent boardings get called and then once the PIM start to climb the same stuff starts to be let go, that's what I'm specifically referring to.

There was a point after Koivu, Selanne, and Getzlaf all got a cheap one in that was penalized that Abdelkader was hounded, cross-checked, and punched completely away from the puck for a good 20 seconds, but the refs chose to do nothing. Same thing with Perry trying to wrestle Eaves stick away from him right in front of the ref. The Ducks had reached their quota, so no call.

[toby91_ca 620]

I will admit that I will occasionally scream out while watching a game when I think a ref missed a call to put the Wings on the PP, but that's mostly emotion and bias jumping out in the moment.

I actually avoid the actual Game topics becuse the level of whining in there about officiating drives me insane. The bias that goes on it off the charts. If that's coming from a Wings' fan like me, I cringe to think what a fan of the opposing team would be saying if they came over and partipated in those topics. They'd probably walk away thinking we were the whiniest fan base on the plant.

Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I can be logical and assume I'd see a similar trend when I went to any other team site.....it's bias and it's logical to complain about officiating.

At the end of the day, I think the refs do a really good job, they make mistakes every now and then, but I try to stay away from whining that they are missing all the penalties committed by the opposing team and calling our team for phantom calls.

[dirtydangles 1,328]

refs missed a faceoff won with a hand in the first period that shoulda been a wings pp. nbd. they always do poorly I just hope that they don't interfere with the game - which they haven't done this series yet thankfully.

[Opie 308]

refs missed a faceoff won with a hand in the first period that shoulda been a wings pp. nbd. they always do poorly I just hope that they don't interfere with the game - which they haven't done this series yet thankfully.

This may be why I think the officiating is decent, because it hasn't been atrocious!

I guess it is all perception and expectations!

[sleepwalker 512]

refs missed a faceoff won with a hand in the first period that shoulda been a wings pp.

I don't remember if it was last nights game or the game before, but the refs also missed the same thing against us that I was sure would be called, so...

[Guest The Axe]

Refs missed the breakaway trip at the end of game 1 that should have been a PS for the Ducks.

[Nightfall 871]

I don't remember if it was last nights game or the game before, but the refs also missed the same thing against us that I was sure would be called, so...

People also want to mention diving by the Ducks, but no mention of the Wings diving trying to get calls. Yes, it goes on both sides. The key is that the refs have to determine if its legit or if its a penalty a second after it happens. I really don't get too upset when the refs are put in this situation. As someone who has reffed for years, I can tell you that its impossible to make those calls correctly 100% of the time.

Overall, I am satisfied with the reffing. The refs are not determining the series at all. Looks like this is going to be a great series and I bet it goes 7 games.

[Sabaton617 28]

Problem I have with the reffing in general, including regular season is the punishment doesn't fit the crime. A player gets checked from behind into the boards and is either hurt or shook up pretty bad and it's a 2 minute penalty. Player barely hooks someone or trips them and it's 2 minutes. They aren't equal put the penalty often is.

[dirtydangles 1,328]

I have never liked the slash the stick out of the hand call. Emmerton almost got called last night. I think if the stick breaks then it should be a call but if a player isn't holding on tight enough to the stick it can be a back breaking penalty especially to go to 5on3. I was pleased the refs let that go. They would have called it 5on5.

Problem I have with the reffing in general, including regular season is the punishment doesn't fit the crime. A player gets checked from behind into the boards and is either hurt or shook up pretty bad and it's a 2 minute penalty. Player barely hooks someone or trips them and it's 2 minutes. They aren't equal put the penalty often is.

I agree. One problem is that there are small things like hooks that are valued the same as some things that can cause injury. Ideally there would be a different hierarchy of penalty minutes but I doubt we see that change. You should also be allowed to defer penalties like in football.

[Z Winged Dangler 2,082]

It's all good until the Ducks tie the game on the Bobby Ryan goal when he should have got a blatant hooking penalty to get the puck away from our guy right before that, and Getzlaf's goal Palmieri was in deep in the crease shoving Filppula into Howard. This game should never have got close to OT had the refs call the Ducks on their s*** and not just the Wings to "make the game interesting". Every game it's the same thing, penalties need to be even just like little kids getting participant ribbons. The only lopsided reffing I've seen was the Sharks against us in the playoffs a few years ago when their PP's outnumbered us like 40-9 or something like that. The Ducks should have lost 6-1 last night. The refs helped them in the 3rd until Souray pulled idiot.

[Euro_Twins 4,475]

People also want to mention diving by the Ducks, but no mention of the Wings diving trying to get calls. Yes, it goes on both sides. The key is that the refs have to determine if its legit or if its a penalty a second after it happens. I really don't get too upset when the refs are put in this situation. As someone who has reffed for years, I can tell you that its impossible to make those calls correctly 100% of the time.

Overall, I am satisfied with the reffing. The refs are not determining the series at all. Looks like this is going to be a great series and I bet it goes 7 games.

Oh i sincerely hope not, they almost injured Franzen, and Abby, and DK did get injured and is out for good now. We need to end this series asap, anaheim is very physical and can seriously injure someone if they go into goon mode again. I am still glad we are playing the ducks instead of the hawks though

It's all good until the Ducks tie the game on the Bobby Ryan goal when he should have got a blatant hooking penalty to get the puck away from our guy right before that, and Getzlaf's goal Palmieri was in deep in the crease shoving Filppula into Howard. This game should never have got close to OT had the refs call the Ducks on their s*** and not just the Wings to "make the game interesting". Every game it's the same thing, penalties need to be even just like little kids getting participant ribbons. The only lopsided reffing I've seen was the Sharks against us in the playoffs a few years ago when their PP's outnumbered us like 40-9 or something like that. The Ducks should have lost 6-1 last night. The refs helped them in the 3rd until Souray pulled idiot.

I was going to mention the palmieri cross checking flip into howie before the goal, but no one seemed to complain about it and the announcers (go figure) didn't seem to give it much thought so I dropped it. To me though that play itself may have bummped howie off just enough to cause that goal, not making excuses, it was a soft goal either way, but if that interference/crosschecking was called on palmieri the score would not have been so close

[toby91_ca 620]

It's all good until the Ducks tie the game on the Bobby Ryan goal when he should have got a blatant hooking penalty to get the puck away from our guy right before that, and Getzlaf's goal Palmieri was in deep in the crease shoving Filppula into Howard. This game should never have got close to OT had the refs call the Ducks on their s*** and not just the Wings to "make the game interesting". Every game it's the same thing, penalties need to be even just like little kids getting participant ribbons. The only lopsided reffing I've seen was the Sharks against us in the playoffs a few years ago when their PP's outnumbered us like 40-9 or something like that. The Ducks should have lost 6-1 last night. The refs helped them in the 3rd until Souray pulled idiot.

To be honest, this is exactly the type of whining I was referring to. I can't remember the hooking, but on the Getzlaf goal, the puck was already in the net before Filppula got pushed into Howard, that's why no one anywhere was complaining.

What series against the Sharks are you referring to? 2010-11 series (DET had 30 PPs and SJ had 29), in 2009-10 (DET had 24 PPs and SJ had 32), the last time they played other than those years was 2006-2007...but I didn't check the stats there as I assumed you were thinking of something in the more recent past few years.

[Guest DeGraa55]

I think the refs have been fair. They've missed calls on both sides.

[Nightfall 871]

I think the refs have been fair. They've missed calls on both sides.

I think the thing to realize is that the refs are not deciding the games. The teams are deciding them, and thats the best kind of hockey. The refs didn't make the Wings fall asleep in the 3rd period. Just like the refs didn't make the Ducks suck it in the first period. There were things on both sides that went uncalled, very true. The Wings fans can point out a few instances of that, but they don't want to look at the blatant slashing call in the first period that gets called all the time, but it didn't.

This post isn't directed at you, but merely to reinforce your comment that there has been calls missed on both sides, and thats fine.

[Guest DeGraa55]

I think the thing to realize is that the refs are not deciding the games. The teams are deciding them, and thats the best kind of hockey. The refs didn't make the Wings fall asleep in the 3rd period. Just like the refs didn't make the Ducks suck it in the first period. There were things on both sides that went uncalled, very true. The Wings fans can point out a few instances of that, but they don't want to look at the blatant slashing call in the first period that gets called all the time, but it didn't.

This post isn't directed at you, but merely to reinforce your comment that there has been calls missed on both sides, and thats fine.

Yes agreed. Its playoff hockey...usually happens refs let a lot go.

[RedLightGoesOn 81]

It's crappy, and its inconsistent. It is pretty clear to me the refs don't call the game as fair and consistently as they should and can. This is not just limited to the Wings; it's a league wide issue. Now look at the NHL's rulings on hits and how god awful and completely full of crap they are. You can't have any type of physical response to any of the cheap or dirty stuff that goes on without risking suspension (depending on your jersey and other irrelevant factors). I really think the officiating + NHL rulings forms a really negative effect on the game in terms of the playing style and culture, and honestly I feel it exposes or creates the illusion of the league's bias towards teams/players. The lack of uniformity is devastating.

[Resetti 44]

If you were to take fans' opinion as law, then the NHL has it out for every team in the league while simultaneously being biased in favor of every other team. It's a bit of a brain-bender.

[MTU_Huskies963 398]

Not only is there diving, there are players just falling all over the place on their own. Hard to ref a game when the ice is crap they are playing on.

[Z Winged Dangler 2,082]

Abdelkader's major is everything that is wrong with the No Hitting League.

[Richdg 267]

The refs haven't been a factor yet. No moving on to a bigger issue: cheap attacks.

For those of us old enough to remember the 1980's-best decade ever BTW! The hockey was awesome! Stars didn't get touched. if they did, their bodyguard would set the other player straight asap! it was the best of both worlds. Lots of goals and lots of fights. When the NHL made the decision to "reduce" fighting, they everyone started to play clutch and grab hockey. For 20 years now we have been hearing how the NHL wants to open things up and increase scoring. Ok, let's do that. Get rid of all the penalties that were put in place to "reduce" fighting. Thengo back to 1 ref and let's have some damn fun already!