Former UND beat writer Virg Foss had this zinger for Bruce McLeod in today's Grand Forks Herald. I agree with Foss it's time for a change in league leadership. I do believe the members schools need to look at a house cleaning at the top in the WCHA starting with McLeod and Shepherd.
Dear Bruce McLeod:
College hockey isn’t a child’s game, where you make up rules as you go. Yet that’s how you continue to operate in your role as commissioner of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.
I perhaps can buy the 5-minute major given to North Dakota’s Matt Frattin for charging for his hit on Minnesota’s Kevin Wehrs recently.
But for you to step in and add a one-game suspension makes no sense. Frattin didn’t leave his feet in making the hit, and didn’t bring his arms up to initiate contact to the head.
Earlier, you gave UND’s Mario Lamoureux a one-game suspension for dropping his gloves and challenging St. Cloud State’s Aaron Marvin to a fight, though none took place.
In the aftermath of Frattin’s hit, looks to me from the video replay that Gopher defenseman Seth Helgeson has his gloves off in his effort to get after Frattin.
So once again your seat-of-the-pants rulings have no consistency or much logic, either.
That so many calls or non-calls by league referees are changed by the league office after the fact highlights my view that league officiating overall isn’t very good or very consistent in the first place.
I sense a growing feeling that a change in league leadership is needed — and soon. [Grand Forks Herald]
Grow up Chuckles
ReplyDeleteBoo-Ya
ReplyDeleteWhat do you do if you agree with the gist but not exactly with some of the content?
ReplyDeleteI think the one game suspension might have been questionable as a stand alone but I don't think Shepherd gave it to Frattin because of Frattin's hit. The more I've thought about it, the more it seems like a correction to a mistake made by either *unt or Daddy's Boy (probably *unt because I'm sure Daddy's Boy is perfect). The suspension never would have happened if *unt and Daddy's Boy made the correct call and gave him a major and a game misconduct.
However, I do agree with the rest.
Foss also neglects to talk about the phantom crackdowns the WCHA claims to be taking such as embellishment. They said preseason they'll be cracking down on it but we're still waiting for SCSU to be called for Diving (here's a hard pill to swallow, Husky fans... at the NCAA regional, you'll be officiated by non wcha officials...so, go ahead and try it. You'll spend time in the box).
It isn't going to happen Virg. I think that the media is seriously underestimating the brown nosing abilities of McLeod and Shepherd. No change will be made.
Red wing,
ReplyDeleteWhat is your thing with SCSU? All teams have players that dive...including ND. Dont sit there and act like your team is above it. The refs have been equal for every team in the wcha this year, good pr bad!
Joe it was nice meeting you this past weekend. Good luck to the Huskies.
ReplyDeleteCome on Charlie, I expect more from you than that.
The frame by frame Brad posted on his blog was never discussed here.
ReplyDeleteMy initial thought after seeing it live was that 5 was the correct call. After watching the replay I thought the game suspension was warranted because it looked pretty violent and it appeared that Frattin jumped at Whers with significant head contact.
Once I saw the frame by frame it was obvious that Frattin had his arms down and his feet on the ice.
I'm sure the league office had access to this. Factor that in with the fact they wouldn't tell us specifically why the hit was a suspendable offense.
Their inconsistency has opened them up to all kinds of criticism and it is nice to see someone step up and publicly rip them.
Well done Virg
Joe-
ReplyDeleteMy "thing" isn't that SCSU is the only team that dives. UND has had its share of divers, true enough (Porter did it some, JP Lammy, and others I'm omitting mostly because I can't remember), but it seems like diving is legal.
I'll restate my take on diving. I have no real problem with Roe or Lasch or any divers really. They're trying to put their team in the best position to win. Yeah, it's unethical to dive, but when the officials reinforce the behavior by calling the other guy, why in the world should they stop?
Heck, it worked so many times for Porter and JPL. It didn't work half as well as it worked for Roe or Earl and I attest (green glasses or not) that Porter did not do it nearly as much as Earl or Roe to garner a reputation for doing it.
My "thing" with SCSU itself stems not from diving, but with the school itself. Saigo is someone I personally revile. I know he's gone now, but it will take time for me to let things lie with SCSU.
So I guess it comes back to the league lying about cracking down on so many infractions...and SCSU has gotten caught in the middle of it.
And no, I don't like Roe.