Cornell's Mike Schafer sounds off on WCHA officials

You have to wonder what kind of a fine that Cornell head coach Mike Schafer will garner after his postgame comments on the WCHA Officials. I think the WCHA would be well served to move on.

“I’m looking at the sheet now, and we’re the ones that were assessed all the penalties,” said Schafer. “You’re supposed to hold your guys at the end of the game. That obviously didn’t happen. It’s just really disappointing on the calls. … It’s disgusting. That’s all you can say. I won’t come back to the WCHA.”

 

Here is the link to the video of the postgame comments by coach Schafer.

I wonder if Cornell will play against the NCHC teams in their home buildings? I hope they do, they’re a great college hockey program with a great hockey history and they have a fired up fan base as well.

You know Mike, I have to agree that there is some horrible officiating in the WCHA over the last 3-5, in my opinion I have seen examples of absolutely brutal officiating. Being armed with a new DVR+ recorder, I am going to give examples that I see along the way as well. The quality of officiating has to be addressed in college hockey.

The fans and the players deserved better. In looking at the box score from the game I have never heard of these two guys, Chris Perrault, Johnathan Morrison.   

So what do you think of Schafer's comments? Do  you think he is out of line?

The Sioux and a Comment on Officiating (RW77)

First the good news:

Despite the ugliest series of the entire year for UND discipline wise (probably the same goes for DU as well), the Sioux leave Denver with 2 points. I think Eidsness played very well on Friday and, unless the score doesn't tell the story, ok but not great on Saturday. I now firmly believe that Dell will take at least one of the games next weekend. In any case, despite this there is good news:

Home ice is ours for the WCHA playoffs. Brad Schlossman and I think Jason Hejdu calculated that it is impossible for CC and MTU to move past us so as to have us drop out of the top 6. That's great news.

However, there is a very good possibility that we will be down to 17 skaters for the rest of the year. Sure, Dickin's not the most prolific scorer and he may not normally be missed if everyone else was healthy but... they're not. And going into the playoffs, consistent and timely play as well as depth (which means fresher legs late in the game) are key. The Sioux do not have depth at all... but our IR list would be a great line or two on most teams in the nation. So we go short bench from here on out.

Good thing Gleason is playing great right now. He looks more and more like Genoway every single game.

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A note on Officiating:

Yeah, yeah, UND fan talking about officiating again, but I'm not going to rag on Todd Anderson, Brad Shepherd or Don Adam. I'm simply going to state my conspiracy theory and watch closely as I expect it will become more and more true as we get closer to the BTHC and NCHC becoming a reality.

I believe that the officials, led by Greg Shepherd, will follow the rule book as required but will not do their professional best nor be held accountable for mistakes when it comes to any game involving NCHC or BTHC teams. They will care less if it is NCHC vs. NCHC, NCHC vs. BTHC, or BTHC vs. BTHC and care more as the permutations get closer to WCHA vs WCHA.

The reason is simple: They only are biding time with the NCHC and BTHC teams but are still trying to pander support among the WCHA teams (and future WCHA teams). So there is more incentive and intention to perform better administratively (which includes officiating) towards WCHA teams than there is to be towards future NCHC and/or BTHC teams.

So, in other words, expect really poor officiating if your NCHC or BTHC team is involved. If you are a WCHA team, there will still be brutal games but that will be because the WCHA officials are idiots and know very little about consistency.

It's like my tinfoil hat saying: Every weekend we have to beat our opponents and the officials.

UPSET ALERT!!!!! (Redwing77) UPDATED!!!!!!!

Ok, not really but....

2010 Robbie Earl Memorial Freestyle Frozen Water Diving Champion Garrett Roe is losing his edge. Roe, famous for the Fish Flop and the Triple Roll Belly Flop with a Cage Gainor failed to dupe any of the officials into awarding SCSU with a single powerplay last night. He didn't garner a choking performance... he didn't even attempt to dive. When is the last time Greg Louganis stepped up to the edge of the diving board and just turned around and walked down the ladder?

Is Roe losing his touch? Does this mean WCHA newcomer Jacob Cepis (Minnesota) will usurp Roe's crown? Can outside candidate Jason Zucker (DU) take the crown? Or will it be a yet unnamed player from else-WCHA?

I know what you may be thinking: "Aww, Roe's too good to let this get him down, he'll dive tonight. After UND only got called for 1 penalty last night, WCHA officiating will come through." Or perhaps you are thinking "Roe doesn't have Lasch and Nodl and other guys like that to use his diving talent for to make his loss of dignity and ethical existence worthwhile." Perhaps. Or perhaps you live in a Husky red dream world and claim that Roe has never dove or embellished in his collegiate career. Well, we'll leave the consumption of paint thinner to residents of the fine state of Wisconsin.

Diving is illegal in most forms of hockey but I still doubt the officials in the WCHA could recognize a dive or an embellishment if it happened to smack them in the junk. Yes, I know Zucker got called for diving early this season but I think it is a fluke.

I can understand why Roe or any WCHA player would wish to embellish. It's a player's way of helping the officials understand what an illegal play looks like. It's not the players' fault that embellishment is a problem in the WCHA. It's the officiating. If you don't call it, then it must be legal. Trust me. If a team goes out there and starts cross checking everyone in sight, they'll get called for a penalty and they'll either adapt and stop doing it or they'll spend the rest of the game in the box. If they don't get called, then the refs must allow it and they'll do it the whole game long.

The issue isn't a vendetta or a conspiracy. The issue is the WCHA administration and their hiring practices. The game has gotten too fast for the officials. They are consistently 1-2 steps behind the play. They simply aren't as fast as they need to be. We can go back and forth about what we could do but it is a waste of time under the current regime.

So... this award will continue to be given by this blog for however long as the officials can't understand how to call the whole rulebook.

UPDATE!

Much like the BCS Standings, beat writers have written in their early season vote on the Robbie Earl Memorial Trophy and, though the full standings aren't available yet, we broke the news here first folks:

If the award were to be handed out on Monday by the WCHA, Minnesota's Jacob Cepis would usurp Garrett Roe!

Neither Cepis nor Roe were available for comment. Stay tuned!