On-Ice Officials for the Conference Finals

If you're not reading scouting the refs, I recommend you start perusing it. The site is run by Josh Smith, that's the same Smith that is a contributing editor of the Hockey Writers. 

Here are the on-ice officials for the Stanley Cup Conference Finals. 

Referees:

Eric Furlatt, Steve Kozari, Wes McCauley, Dan O’Halloran, Kevin Pollock, Chris Rooney, Kelly Sutherland, and Brad Watson. Standby referee is Gord Dwyer. 

Linesmen:

Derek Amell, Scott Cherrey, Michel Cormier, Greg Devorski, Shane Heyer, Brad Kovachik, Brian Murphy, and Pierre Racicot. Standby linesman is Steve Miller. (Scouting the Refs)

NHL considering video review

Sportsnet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Awesome idea. I wish the NCAA would consider doing this as well. Refs are human and make mistakes. As long as they don't slow the game down, I am all for it.

Mark Spector, Sports Net -- Here’s the deal on NHL refs: They get 95 percent of the calls right. And on the five percent they don’t, they know 95 percent of the time that they might be wrong.

You’ve heard of the referee who goes into the dressing room in between periods to watch a replay of a certain call? Why do you think he’s looking at it again? Because he thinks he might have screwed it up.

“The guys on the ice have a real sense of when something doesn’t smell right,” Director of Officiating Stephen Walkom told Sportsnet Monday, after he took part in a discussion on whether the on-ice officials should be able to initiate video reviews or not. “There are just certain times where a referee calls a penalty. He thinks he has a (number) six but it’s really 16. Guys come to him and say, ‘You sure you have the right number?’ It doesn’t stop the game. It just gets the right guy.”

NHL Linesmen and Refs announced for the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals

Referees assigned to the Stanley Cup Final: Wes McCauley, Dan O'Halloran, Chris Rooney, Brad Watson.
— Mark Spector (@SportsnetSpec) June 9, 2013

The NHL refs and linesmen have been announced according to Mark Spector of Sportsnet.ca. Missing is veteran NHL official Stephen Walkom who is supposed to be one of the best in the NHL.

Linesmen assigned to Stanley Cup Final: Shane Heyer, Brian Murphy, Pierre Racicot, Jay Sharrers.
— Mark Spector (@SportsnetSpec) June 9, 2013

Related articles

• Referee Stephen Walkom no goal call (Video) (ndgoon.blogspot.com)

NHL looks at Obstruction

I am sure that my buddy Redwing77 will give his spin later on this subject.

According to NHL.COM, the NHL is having a two day summit to discuss the NHL current standard of rule enforcement.

Translation, the National Hockey League is looking into whether there too much obstruction in the NHL right now, especially after they had players sounding off on the leagues officials during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The following people listed in the Paragraph below are part of the discussion.

If you need refreshing here are some examples about players being upset with the reffing during last season's NHL playoffs... [example one] and [exmaple two]

While they’re at it, I would like them to look at the diving and flailing about on the ice that some like to use to draw penalties.

Tim Campbell, Winnipeg Free Press --- Players present for the meeting were Mike Cammalleri of the Calgary Flames, Jason Spezza of the Ottawa Senators, Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning, John-Michael Liles of the Toronto Maple Leafs, James Neal of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Kevin Bieksa of the Vancouver Canucks.

The coaching roster included five NHL bench bosses -- Chicago's Joel Quenneville, Nashville's Barry Trotz, Phoenix's Dave Tippett, Boston's Claude Julien and Washington's Adam Oates -- as well as three active referees, Stephen Walkom, Brad Watson and Wes McCauley.

Also attending were five NHL GM's -- Pittsburgh's Ray Shero, Tampa Bay's Steve Yzerman, Buffalo's Darcy Regier, New Jersey's Lou Lamoriello and Vancouver's Mike Gillis.

After reading some of the tweets that Paul from Kuklas Korner posted on line it appears that the NHL is going to tighten up the calls if the NHL ever plays a game this season.

#NHL met today to discuss rules, namely obstruction. Looks like they’re going to tighten things up a bit for next season. — George Popalis (@SNGeorgePopalis) August 22, 2012

For fans that want to watch a more wide open game I think that this is really good news – I don’t know anyone that wants to watch the players hanging all over each other like groupies at a hockey party.

I also think that if the league cracks down on the obstruction they also need to crack down on the poor sports that like to embellish to draw penalties – you know the frauds like Ryan Kesslers (video evidence) and Alex Burrows (video evidence) that skate up and down the ice flailing around and snapping their heads back.

Lastly, It will be interesting to see if anything actually comes out of this or will they call it tight for a few months and go back to the horrible job of officiating we saw last spring during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.