Big Ten Hockey Officiating Campaign
As I am sure you are all aware by now (or at least you should be), the Big Ten Hockey Conference is now official. WIth the conference being official, that means that at some point in the next few years, the conference is going to be in need of some officials.
As anyone who follows the hockey team knows, the officiating in our current conference, the CCHA, is abysmal. Even the most basic of call are regularly blown. Just two weekends ago against Bowling Green, they blew the whistle for icing even though the Bowling Green goalie had come out to play the puck (to their credit, they did try to aleviate this one by keeping the face-off in their end when they realized what they had done).
CCHA officials also have had a tendency to blow crucial calls in close games as well. We've been screwed out of countless goals and countless games over the years. Just this last weekend they errantly called off an empty-net goal at the end of the game. Fortunately, it didn't end up mattering, but it was completely possible that the ref's blowing that call could have led to ND tying it up and sending it to overtime. I can't even begin to describe my emotions if that would have happened.
Anyway, the real point here is that I fear the Big Ten is, naturally, going to think the best place to go looking for college hockey officials is to poach them from the CCHA and WCHA. I expect they'll be paying a lot better, so I'm sure anybody they offer would take it. I believe this would be a huge mistake on thier part and I think the Big Ten should make an effort to find and appropriately train it's own referees from the outside. This could be retired NHL referees, or reputable referees from junior hockey, or some place else.
I understand that this isn't going to mean there are not going to be blown calls from time to time, nor does it necessarily mean there will be any improvement at all for that matter. I think, however, that it would be a mistake not to try and get an improvement by getting new guys in then to reward CCHA refs (And possible WCHA referees whom Wisconsin and Minnesota fans might be able to vouch against) for the years of mind-numbing officiating they've committed with effectively a promotion. Of course I'm partial to our woes, but if they're screwing our games up on a regular basis, you better believe they're screweing up everyone else's to.
I am encouraging everyone who is reading this thread and follows Michigan Hockey to write a letter, e-mail, or whaever to the Big Ten expressing your distaste for our officials and letting it be known to them that should seek officials from someplace different than the current ranks. While you're at it, I recommend mentioning the absurdity of the CCHA video review rules about the above-goal camera. One way or another, I don't want to see guys like Shegos ever again when we go to the Big Ten, but I fear the Big Ten is going to naturally gravitate that way if they don't hear enough from people like us. If anyone knows where fans of our Big Ten hockey breathern like to hang out on the internet, feel free to pass it along. It'll help, I'm sure, if Minny, Wisky, MSU, and OSU are letting the conference know how they feel about their quality of officiating.
Happy Letter Writing. Feel free to post what you send.
Man, you really want to get screwed in 2012 in the meantime. I mean if the Big 10 announces new officials, while we're still playing in the CCHA. WMU would be able to stab one of ours without a penalty, Happy Gilmore style.
I personally would love to make Shegos a ref for the BTHC. He is such an easy mark for ridicule. I highly suggest everyone include Shegos at the end of the cya chant in place of c**sucker. There could be no greater insult than to be compared to Shegos.
I'm more concerned about the rules they are going to adopt: i.e. icing calls (can you change?, hybrid icing?, etc), penalties (does a goal on a delayed penalty keep the other team shorthanded?), shoot-outs, point system (3 points win, 2 points win in shootout, etc), playoff scenario (1v6, 2v5,3v4?).
Will the other Big Ten Schools start hockey programs (i.e. Indiana, Iowa, Northwestern, Illinois, Purdue, Nebraska)?
Could this be another reason for ND to join the Big Ten Conference?
There are just a lot of questions to be asked and answered.
Most of those rules are NCAA-wide. Only the shootout for the purposes of confernece standings are up to the conference. The tournament will probably be first-round bye for the top 2 and then semis and championship wherever the Big Ten decides to old them.
Doubt hockey matters enough revenue wise for ND to join the Big Ten. That's a possible consequence down the road, but it won't be a contributing factor. Besides, the CCHA is going to need them for the immediate future until some more programs crop up with the sudden availability of conference slots. I'm sure Alabama-Huntsville can't wait to be back in a conference, either.
As long as they still check the net and throw candy into the student section, I'm ok.
We need to create a blacklist for officials. I nominate Hill, Hall, Sergott, McInchack. Shegos is ok in my book, along with Tunison and lickens.
Haha this is sort of what I mean with people having a problem with the refs. I agree with you, Shegos isn't bad in my book but I think Hall and Sergott call some of the better games. Beauty of officiating is in the eye of the beholder, although I'm pretty sure you guys would die if you regularly watched the WCHA games...
I really find it interesting people have opinions about linesmen. They either call the offsides correct or incorrect haha. Usually, I think they do a good job.
Have you ever seen McInchack call a game? He called the wmu game this weekend and called scooter's goal back on a legal hand pass. I also nominate gravaleese from the eachl. Dude screwed us against Miami last year in the ncaa's.
Everyone hates John Gravallese. I'm not really sure how he still gets division I games, then again, he officiates in Hockey East so you really just have to be friends with a couple key people.
Not going to go into it too deeply (although it turns out I did), but CCHA refs are pretty much the best among the collegiate ranks.
I was an intern at the CCHA while I was at Michigan and one of my roles was to track referee penalties and present reports for the officiating coordinator. We looked for all sorts of trends, including referee proclivity to call certain penalties, amounts and times, penalty patterns for different opponent and referee combinations, coach's post-game referee reports, etc. (This also happened to be the year the CCHA put in the 2-referee system so we were tracking some other comparative statistics as well). The process the CCHA uses for evaluating officials was and still is the benchmark for collegiate hockey.
The referees all undergo an extensive physical training program in addition to a multi-day seminar that addresses fundamentals, rule & interpretation changes, and new points of emphasis for the upcoming season. Last year, a CCHA crew worked the Championship game featuring your fav Matt Shegos (Shegos/Wilkins & Vida/Molina) in addition to having past crews (Pi, Philo, Langseth, etc.) that worked the Frozen Four and Championships what seemed like every single season.
While I don't argue that you can find anecdotal evidence where the officials got one wrong or that Shegos can be a frustrating referee (and I would call the game differently) at times, it's tough to argue that he isn't a consistent and fair referee. Since teams in the CCHA see the same 4 or 5 pairs of referees every season, it shouldn't be hard to identify how the officials will react to your style of play each game. You know, as a CCHA player, what you're getting into before each game.
I would be more than happy to poach CCHA officials for a BTHC. The questions I have for you is this: If you don't want CCHA guys, who do you want? Old NHL guys are going to be too old to do the games (or if they are young, probably aren't better than the CCHA guys. Hell, Sergott quit the NHL program to be around his family more). AHL guys are either working their way to the NHL or are the same substitute referees that blot random East coast AHL and ECHL games. Most of these CCHA referees are the top guys willing to spend 5 months of the year missing their family and jobs from Thursday night to Sunday morning for not a ton of money. I agree that the BTHC should have best officials available, however, if you look at the referees available, I believe the CCHA does a pretty bang-up job.
I do agree, however, that I DO NOT want WCHA officials. They pretty much fly-by-night when it comes to explainations and consistency.
I don't think it'd be terribly difficult to find some retired NHL officials just looking to do something in retirement. Keep in mind that we'll only have 6 teams, so at most we'd only need at most 6 referees and 6 line judges on any given weekend, and none of them will have to go someplace like Alaska every weekend or two. They wouldn't really need to work every weekend either, as long as we have a few extra crews, and that's not even mentioning the fact that we only have 20 conference games and probably at most half of the non-conference slate to do. I'd be willing to bet that plenty of said referees reside in the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan as well.
They don't have to be former NHL guys, either. Like I said, I'm sure we can get a few from junior hockey or perhaps even the OHL if they happen to reside in Windsor or someplace close to the border. Again, we only need 12 guys at minimum, and it wouldn't be hard, nor bad really to have a few backup crews so we can rotate them.
I believe you when you say the CCHA has the best in college hockey. One need only watch our tournament game against Miami last year to know this isn't just a CCHA problem. I'm saying that I don't believe the best is good enough when you can't even get an icing call right and you have the kind of resources like the Big Ten does to do something about it. We also have 2.5 years to accomplish this and make sure the people we hire know the college rules. I think it's quite doable without poaching them all from the current conferences who've already proven time and again they can decide change the outcome of a game with their officiating.
I guess to sum up my point as concisely as possible: I don't think we're going to get better referees for our games.
The guys doing CCHA games are top-level referees. Often, these guys are the same quality as NHL officials, they have just taken different paths to end up with refereeing as a hobby as opposed to a career. Oftentimes, the NHL guys are from from Quebec and Ontario and have bloodlines/family ties separating themselves from the guys doing CCHA or USHL games.
As for pulling retired NHL or current OHL referees, I think this parallel fits: While a neurosurgeon may have had 8 more years of school and perform surgeries that are much more intricate than a pediatrist (simply because I like Seinfeld), the pediatrist has been working with feet for a long time. He knows what the body is expecting from the feet and how they react & behave. While the neurosurgeon makes more money and generally has more prestige, the pediatrist would be a better choice for the foot.
Same thing: so much of hockey refereeing is judgement and feel. If you've watched the NHL style of play your entire career, even if you know the entire rulebook front to back, you will call the game much differently than a good college official. You will also interact between the coaches and players much differently, which is a huge part of officiating. While there may be excellent former NHL or OHL officials interested, I think the CCHA is the first place to look.
From somebody who lives on the east coast and has dabbled in the lower-level refereeing world for a couple years, I wish you much luck in this endeavour.
I don't know where you think you're going to get referees from if they're not from the WCHA or CCHA... Do you think The Big Ten can get guys from the ECAC or Hockey East? Doubtful, since both leagues provide games much closer geographically, and aren't likely to be all that much different on a pay scale. I'm not saying it's better one way or another, I'm just saying guys aren't likely to relocate a great deal to be in a different league.
That being said, I watched a large number of Hockey East games this year, and I really don't think you're going to get anything better from the right coast. Some games were good, and some games were atrocious like everywhere else. You yell, curse, boo loudly and then move on with your life. C'est la vie.
Finally, all those guys that you claim to hate will probably look a lot better once you get to see who their replacements would be. College refereeing is tough and competitive as hell, and you're not likely to see much improvement with the rest of the lot. The guys you see on game day are usually there for a reason, and that reason is usually because they do a pretty darn good job.
If they were good refs they would be in the ahl or the NHL.
Amen. I see collegiate hockey refereeing in the same light. I actually think that NCAA hockey is lightyears ahead of NCAA baskbetball and football officiating. Granted, it's a smaller world to manage and train, but the NCAA basketball officiating is horrendous.
The state of Michigan has one of the better officiating development structures in the country. East coast and Minnesota have a lot of good ol' boy networks that stagnate the number of top-level officials that make it to these levels. You see those in Michigan, too, but not to the levels there.
Illinois is also very, very good at developing officials; I quit before being able to go above HS varsity (I was >18) but my experience was top notch.
with any of the CCHA refs with the notable and strong exception of McInchak. Every single game I've been really, really upset at the officiating, I've gone home and noticed his name in the box score as one of the referees. Sometimes there is a call or two that makes me pretty upset and I'll get really mad at the refs of those games, but thinking back, most of the games aren't completely horrible. Unless, of course, McInchak is one of them, in which case I spend the whole game trying to find out what his malfunction is. Also, No John Gravellesse.
I'm on it, Mr. Robot. Sending e-mails to the Big Ten and Delaney's office on Tuesday.
I want highly-paid guys, that I hope the Big Ten hires, who do their job objectively and competently.
As long as it's not Keith Sergott or Brian Aaron. Turrible.
The new B1G Hockey Conference is just waiting by the phone for whiney Michigan fans to call.