Rant on Officiating, Good, Bad, Ugly?

Hey, it has been awhile since my last report, but I have been watching the Pittsburgh-Detroit series and there is something on my mind. 

I wrote an article about a year ago about officiating, and in it one of the sports i discussed was hockey and their officiating and how it is a hard game to officiate now a days.

I am still going to agree with that, it is an extremely hard game to officiate.  There are  a couple reasons in my mind!!

First of all, players now a days are accustomed to the refs being not the smartest in the world, inept to making the right call, to worried about doing something wrong so making any call, most of the time being the wrong one, and my favorite being blind for a home team for fear of ridicule from the home fans.

The reason why i say this is because players love it, PP's have never been better, there has never been so many penalties because more than 75% of the NHL teams forget how the game of hockey is supposed to be played.  

Now, I agree that the players should be protected in all aspects for sure, they are the reason why we turn on the TV to watch the game, so head shoots, etc. should be watched, but I have never seen so much diving in hockey ever, it is something like taking your hand and so very gently pat the back of your little three-month-old child, then the player flops to the ice in so much pain, as if he has been shot, sometimes the flailing is so bad, I think that the career is ended. 

The best part about it is when the ref does call a penalty, the player who not 4 seconds earlier after convulsing in absolute agony, waits a couple seconds, looks around for another second or 2, gets up and miraculously is perfectly okay. 

Good call ref, that was not a dive, do you feel stupid yet.  I often think that the ref must feel like he is the biggest moron on the planet when something like that happens, he has to, think about it, you call a penalty because you think this four-plus million a year player is dying on the ice in front of you, so you call the penalty on the other player, only to have that player just get up as if nothing happened, "here's your sign, dummy".

The game has just gotten stupid, way too commercialized, not enough quality play.  The playoffs used to be a time when you always would have a large gathering of people to watch the game, have a few drinks of choice and really get into the game, but you don't get that anymore.

You don't get that rocking hit, Scott Stevens would not last in this game, he would give it one year, two max, and go to the Russian league. 

Remember when a "Hip Check" was just that, a "Hip Check", remember when it was not a penalty for tripping.

Remember "Rock Em Sock Em", I used to get them as a young boy for Christmas and our whole family would watch it on Christmas Day, right after we had a bit of breakfast, while we wait for more family to come to the house. 

The hits and fights were a popular spot in the DVD.  Now a day's Cherry does not have much to choose from.

This is my rant, maybe I am countries apart from a lot of people, I like a hard hitting close low scoring games, the way it was 10 years ago, the way the game was originally played, when men played hockey because it was more about the game than it was about the money or fame, when a hard hit was more important than a face wash.

Thanks for reading, we don't always have to agree with what we read, as long as we have an opinion on what was said.