NHL Officials Assocation: Where Seniority Is the Only Score That Matters

M. Patton

While I know that most NHL refs are no friend of mine and certainly cannot find very many compliments among these posts. That being said, if you are an NHL Referee apologist, please do not read any further.

The common feeling, although I have not heard anything official that has come from the league, was that referees are evaluated and then allowed to call playoff games based on merit. Essentially, only the best referees will be officiating playoff games. I say all of this in the past tense because this is obviously not the case anymore, if it was ever the case.

The easiest example is our old friend Mick McGeough. McGeough has botched calls that have altered the outcomes of two games this year. The first, of which he admitted he was wrong, was the phantom hand pass call on Edmonton where he waived off a would be tying goal in the dying seconds because he claimed the puck was cleared back to the point by a hand pass. He was wrong, he admitted he was wrong but the Oilers can't get that point back. The second game, where he actually screwed St. Louis twice during the same period, was a clear goal for which he didn't call for a video review. That would have been the go ahead goal. Then, after Ottawa had taken the lead, St Louis scored the tying goal, but McGeough waived it off because he had lost sight of the puck and blew the whistle. Replays show that he had no good reason to whistle the play other than he was out of position. What if these had been playoff games?

So, who was it calling Game 1 between Detroit and Calgary? Our good friend Micky McGeough. Why? Well, truth is that the NHL refs still live by the old-school union rules. What does that mean? Seniority is the only merit the you need to have. If you are not officiating in the playoffs, then you are not getting that extra cash. Just like in a union hall where there are 10 guys who need a job but only enough work for 5 guys, the work will go to the 5 oldest guys every time. The old guys will always get the work and always get the extra cash as long as they are willing to show up. This is why you still have guys like McGeough, Koharski, and Frasier still skating up and down the ice, or at least trying to, during important playoff games. Look, I am not saying these guys are fatally flawed because my Sabres have been the beneficiaries of some decently called, and not so decently called, games by these guys. What I am saying is that there needs to be a season long evaluation system that does not take into account the ref's age or tenure. In a league where the scoring title, and perhaps the Hart Trophy, just went to a 19 year old, it should be appreciated that age and tenure are not directly proportional to good performance.

And if the old guard doesn't like it, there are still labor unions all over the US that still operate based on seniority so tell them to grab a broom and get sweeping.