NHL needs to admit mistakes

NHL referees are only human.

Referees will be make mistakes, but the NHL shouldn't cover for them.

They’re going to make mistakes. It’s bound to happen.

But the NHL needs to admit when mistakes happen.

For example, in Game 3 of the Detroit Red Wings-Anaheim Ducks series, the ref lost sight of the puck in the last minute of the game. Detroit scored, but the ref had blown the whistle and the call.

Everyone knows it was a mistake. But what does the NHL do? They tell a reporter with the Detroit Free Press that it wasn’t a mistake.

This is a comment from NHL’s E.J. McGuire, series manager and spokesman for officials:

“He didn’t make a mistake. In hindsight, if he had a slow-motion camera to review it, he may not have” blown the whistle. “He did what all officials are instructed to do. Blow the whistle when they don’t see the puck. And he didn’t see the puck.”

Seriously? You’re going to try to deny the fact a mistake happened?

Now, compare that to the other sports. Last season, after a scorekeeping error had someone foul out of a game early by accident, the NBA determined that the last minute and a half should be replayed at a later date.

They're all going to mistakes, but which leagues will admit it?

The there’s this story from the NBA. Earlier this week, the Denver Nuggets won a playoff game over the Dallas Mavericks, thanks to a last-second three-pointer. However, a player on the Mavericks tried to foul so his opponent couldn’t take the three-pointer. The refs missed the call.

So what did the NBA do: They admitted the refs made a mistake.

In this article from ESPN:

“At the end of the Dallas-Denver game this evening, the officials missed an intentional foul committed by Antoine Wright on Carmelo Anthony, just prior to Anthony’s three-point basket,” Joel Litvin, NBA president of league and basketball operations, said in a statement issued by the league about two hours after the game.

Instead of being angry, players and coaches seem to be more accepting of it. They may be angry, but they’ll say, “hey, mistake happen, and that’s all you can do.”

The NFL is the same. They’ll come out and admit if the refs made a mistake (a famous one happened last year that impacted the spread, but not who won the game).

So why can other leagues admit their mistakes, but not the NHL? We know referees are human, and there are going to be errors. But when a mistake is made, own up to it. Don’t try to defend it.

Refs

Why do so many people treat referees/umpires so poorly?

Is it because they can’t seem to find the glory they think they should have? Is it because they never got their shot to make it to the major leagues? Is it because they believe they are entitled to play how they want to play? Is it because they think they’re better than everyone else, and when they’re not dominating, it’s obviously the ref’s fault?

Most of the times, players in the leagues I play for have never have a problem with the ref. But there are times when people push it way too far.

There was one time in my men’s ball hockey league where a guy just lost it. It was a close game, and the players on the other side were mouthing off at the refs. The refs gave both teams a warning that no more would be tolerated.

Our team was up by one with a couple of minutes left. The ref called penalties on a player on each side. The guy on the other team lost it (even though the penalties cancelled out). Throwing his stick, yelling, cursing, etc. At one point he started yelling that the guy would never ref in the league again, and he would call the president of the league personally to see to that. In the end, he got another penalty and was kicked out (three penalties and you’re gone). One of his team mates didn’t like that, so he started arguing. So he got a penalty, and then he threw his stick, resulting in another penalty and an ejection. This was followed by one more guy, and then the ref called the game.

After the game, they got in the refs face (just the first two who were kicked out). Our team kept an eye out to make sure they didn’t do anything stupid (they didn’t), but why would you get so upset at a rec ball hockey league game? Especially in such a close game?

Probably not a coincidence, but the first guy who got kicked out was suspended three or four times over the course of a season (three penalties in a game is an automatic suspension).

Did this guy think that by threatening a ref that he was showing everyone else that he was a man? Because in the end, he just looked like a little boy who couldn’t take the fact that he wasn’t as good as he thought he was.

I think there needs to be a major change when it comes to this, and it needs to start with the coaches. First off, a coach who mouths off to a ref at any point is automatically canned as a coach for the rest of the season.

Then, every time a coach hears a parent mouth off in the stands at the ref/ump, the kid’s son or daughter is automatically benched for a shift.

And because kids follow the leads of parents, this should help them learn it’s not okay to mouth off. If a kid does, automatically one-game suspension, and then it doubles for incident after that.

I’m not saying that coaches or parents can’t say, “that was a bad call ref.” Because there will be missed calls. But there should be no cursing, threatening, physical violence, etc.

Things are getting out of hand with attacks and threats. It’s time to take a hard stance on players, coaches, and parents.

Or else there might not be any one left to be referees or umpires.