Image via WikipediaThere is a lot of news today in the hockey world. Sidney Crosby made his much anticipated return to the Penguins after missing over 10 months with a concussion. Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron is glad to see Sidney Crosby back in the Penguins line up as well. “I am happy to hear that not just for him as a hockey player but for him a person first and foremost,” Bergeron said. “I think his health is the most important thing and I’m very happy to hear that. It’s obviously a good thing for the league and good for him.”The Boston Bruins with their ninth win in a row actually vaulted to the top of the North East Division. Chris Kelly is the Boston Bruins of the week with his solid play. [the Bruins Blog]
Good news for the Fighting Sioux Women's team -> WCHA Offensive Player of the Week Jocelyne Lamoureux Junior, Forward North Dakota. Congrats to Jocelyn Lamoureux.
From the WCHA press release --- The Tigers (7-2-0, 5-2-0 WCHA) and defending WCHA/MacNaughton Cup-champion Fighting Sioux (4-7-1, 2-6-0 WCHA) will hook up at Ralph Engelstad Arena (11,634) in Grand Forks on Friday evening at 7:37 pm CT and Saturday night at 7:07 pm CT. This is the only regular season series between CC and UND.
Chris Peters of the United States of Hockey had this to say about the Fighting Sioux.
North Dakota – North Dakota is on this list for all the wrong reasons. The Sioux lost a bunch of firepower from last year’s club, but I don’t think anyone saw this coming. North Dakota is tied for 10th place in the 12-team WCHA with a 2-6-0 conference record to go along with an ugly 4-7-1 record. Adding insult to injury, the Sioux have been swept by rivals Minnesota and Wisconsin already this year. Making matters worse, they’ve just lost freshman phenom Rocco Grimaldi (who’s been hampered by injury all year) for the next 6-8 weeks. More on that in a bit…Apparently the Badgers center Mark Zengerle was less than impressed with the WCHA on ice officials and got a 10 minute misconduct penalty for chirping at the refs. Looking at the box score from the game reveals that Derek Shepherd, Matt Ulwelling were the on ice officials for that game. I can't say that I blame Zengerle, most of us have been upset with the WCHA officiating from time to time.
Overall, there have been a lot of intriguing things happening in college hockey. Part of that may have to do with the ever-increasing parity. Save a few teams with tremendous records, everyone else has been pretty average. Typical powers like Boston University, Denver and Michigan haven’t been exactly dominant. In fact, each has mostly been average. Perhaps that’s good for college hockey. The fact that any team can win on any given night makes for some exciting match-ups. Expect this season to heat up even more, just in time for it’s national debut on VERSUS (featuring two of the best teams in the country in BC and Notre Dame) on New Year’s Eve.
Sophomore center Mark Zengerle compounded the first episode when he was assessed a 10-minute misconduct penalty for chirping at the officials, a misdeed that resulted in him sitting on the bench 10 minutes once he got out of the penalty box.
"I hope it's a lesson that (Zengerle) remembers," Eaves said.[Madison.com]
Did Zengerle learn his lesson? I was thinking that maybe the quality of the on ice officials could improve. This season the officiating in the WCHA has been confusing, inconsistent and I could see how the players get confused and upset. As a fan, you never know what the referees are going to call from game to game. There is no consistency from the various on ice crews. What is a penalty one game; isn’t the next weekend.
I hope when the Big Ten Hockey Conference and the NCHC form that the NCHC can start over and acquire new on ice officials, it would be a good time to start fresh in the on ice officials department. Enough is enough, after watching the WCHA on a regular basis since 1993; I have to say that the quality of officiating has degraded to a very low level.
I would caution the newly formed NCHC from entertaining the idea that the current band of WCHA officials will suffice as on ice officials for NCHC play. I don’t care if a certain WCHA official lives in Colorado, let’s pay the extra money as a league and fly someone else in to officiate games in Denver or Colorado Springs.
There are other competent official’s currently officiating hockey games in other levels of hockey, one idea would be to recruit officials from the USHL who have a higher standard of quality than the WCHA.
The referees in the WCHA remind of a bunch of Keystone Kops or a bunch of bumbling buffoons, making stuff up as they go. College hockey deserves better and it’s time we took action and demand better. The status quo is no longer acceptable.
