It's the hockey word of the month for September and, probably, October: marginal. Pierre McGuire should have a string attached to his back. You pull it and it says "MaaaaaRginal" in an incessant tone a dozen times a game.
Hockey used to be a game that got you on the edge of your seat. A certain amount of stick work was part of the game, which refs controlled by judgement, feel and penalties of various types. Increasingly, it's becoming basketball officiating on ice. Same number of whistles, but they don't wear helmets. Rather than coaching our officials and cultivating hockey sense, we rely on cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-none reffing via email mandates, corporate PowerPoint presentations, and monotone voiced-over video.
Do officials hold accountability for the way stick infractions -- like all penalties -- are called? Certainly. Sole accountability? Certainly not. Novel idea: How about we actually coach our players not to slash? How about we insist they wear more protective gloves, starting from a young age where equipment preferences take hold?
For those of you --- inevitably folks who've never officiated at any level and couldn't pass the Rule Book test if asked to take it -- who say "just enforce the Rule Book", the problem is that we don't want 40-plus power plays a game. Under the strictest definition of the Rule Book, there are things that could be called penalties on virtually every shift. When there's too much special teams play, there's no flow. The game is dreadful to watch.
No, players "won't eventually adjust" to that, nor should they. They are out there competing in the trenches. The Rule Book contains a lot of ambiguous terminology -- sometimes intentionally, sometimes through ill-considered wording -- that, in the strictest of enforcement constructs, means there will be constant whistles.
It's a no-win, 30-Team Rule Book (now that there are 31 NHL teams) situation. What folks really want is for officials to "call everything" against their favorite team's opponents while letting the same ticky-tack stuff go when committed by "our" team. As for the faceoff violation penalty that's being foisted on the league, it's an abomination. More needless delays (paradoxically, in the name of calling delay of game penalties), more unearned power plays, more headaches for the officials themselves. Yes, the officials despise this newest mandate as much as the players do.
This is how I was taught by some of the game all-time great officials and officiating mentors -- the likes of Frank Udvari, John Ashley, John McCauley and via the lineage passed down from my grandfather and my dad -- to apply judgment in penalty calling.
First of all, there is no prize for putting your arm up for a penalty the fastest. So watch the play, judge the play, make a decision and if it is a penalty put up your arm. When considering a penalty, ask yourself:
* Did someone gain an advantage? * Was the play dangerous? * Did someone lose or gain a scoring opportunity? * What was the effect?
Toward these objectives, John McCauley gave me some sage advice that I still pass along to my officials to this very day.
"When you think about the rules, use common sense," John said. "Ask yourself, 'Why does this rule exist? How does the spirit of this rule serve the game?'"
Viewing the Rule Book in that manner made the game must simpler to adjudicate rather than getting bogged down in minutia (although officials should know the Rule Book thoroughly, and there is no excuse for misapplying a rule). We wear black and white striped sweaters for a reason: goal/no goal, penalty/play on, onside/offside, etc. The spirit of the Rule Book in simpler times was to allow the game's on-ice arbiters to judge.
Today, there is what I call the Baskin-Robbins effect. Whenever I've gone to a Baskin-Robbins or Ben & Jerry's shop in recent years, I've looked at many of dozens of flavors listed and they don't sound even the slightest bit tempting. Inevitably, I found myself thinking, "Is THIS really ice cream?"
They have every flavor for all the eclectics and tree huggers such as salmon, wild eucalyptus, dandelion crush, but the basics are nowhere to be seen.
Coffee ice cream has coffee beans but the wall has stopped them from getting the supply from Columbia so they have them grown in VT in the marijuana hot houses. Strawberry is not allowed due to allergy restrictions. Vanilla is no longer offered due to vanilla being banned as the fields are now being used for poppies.
Ice cream has changed. So has hockey officiating. Have either changed for the better? I'd say no, but what do I know after 40+ years in the game? I'm a dinosaur.
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Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulstewart22
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Paul Stewart holds the distinction of being the first U.S.-born citizen to make it to the NHL as both a player and referee. On March 15, 2003, he became the first American-born referee to officiate in 1,000 NHL games. After his retirement, he began a long career as a collegiate hockey officiating director, officiating trainer and supervisor, and an officiating and supplemental discipline consultant to the KHL.