It's getting hard to figure out just what NHL referees are paid for. But when it comes to ticky tack hooking, holding, and interference calls, they're right on it. When it comes to the #1 thing they should care about, PLAYER SAFETY, they are alarmingly inept.
I absolutely hate bashing referees. They don't have the easiest job. The game moves fast. Things get missed. I think we all understand that.
Ridiculing officials also brings out the "it all evens out in the end" crowd, which often times is just a shortsighted way of saying "sh** happens."
Yes it does happen. Really bad stuff happens sometimes. So bad and so plainly obvious that swift and merciless justice need to be applied, right?
Wrong.
Back on January 10th in Edmonton, there was this...
No penalty was called during the game. Hendricks was then suspended by the NHL for 3 games. Obviously the NHL was correct in punishing the exact behavior they are trying to eradicate from the game. But the referee was looking RIGHT AT THE PLAY. What could he possibly be thinking?
Do the Panthers need to make the playoffs more than once this millennium to start getting these types of obvious calls?
Luckily the Panthers were still able to pull out a 2-1 win in Edmonton for their 12th win in a row, but Ekblad was then lost for the next 4 games. Not coincidentally, Florida went 0-3-1 over that stretch.
Most teams would assume the referees would never miss such an obvious call like that, but if they did it could never happen more than once, right?
Wrong.
Here is another disgusting display of bush league hockey from Justin Abdelkader last night.
Of course Abdelkader says it wasn't a dirty hit, even though he has been suspended twice for such violations in his career. Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill defended his player's point of view.
"I don't want to speak on their behalf," Blashill said. "From my vantage point, both live and then when I watched the replay, I thought it was a totally clean hit. My understanding of the rule is he hit right through the body, but I thought it was a totally clean hit. Just a good hockey hit."
Yeah, right. A tiny problem with that stance is initial contact was on the jaw and he left his feet.
Not surprisingly, the Panthers agree.
"It was a cheap hit," said Florida's Nick Bjugstad. "It was a head shot. I don't know why the ref didn't call it. It was a turning point of the game ... I don't think the guys on their bench like to see the game played like that.
"I don't know if it was an elbow or a shoulder but I know it was a head shot. The bottom line is Barkov's out. He's the best player on the team."
If the NHL cares at all there will be a minimum 2-game suspension. (updated: No hearing is scheduled for this Abdelkader hit. Guess the NHL wanted to stay consistent in its blindness)
But the problem is that we are here at all. Why are officials missing the blatantly obvious?
Making matters worse is this illegal hit actually resulted in Detroit going on the power play after Alex Petrovic rightfully went after Abdelkader for his despicable act.
The Panthers haven't lost much in regulation over the last few months, and the Barkov injury was a huge moment in the 3-0 defeat. Florida still maintains a 6-point lead in the Atlantic Division over the rest of the field.
It's one thing to lament over a terrible hooking call that ends up deciding a game. It's another thing altogether to ignore the protection of players. Referees need to lean on the side of the injured player when deciding whether to make a call. I'd rather a ref get a call wrong trying to protect a player than creating a holding penalty out of thin air.
Just in case, if a Panther player had done this to a Red Wing I'd be saying the same thing. This is a player safety issue, as well as questioning the competency of on-ice officials regarding one of the most important aspects of player protection in today's game.
Barkov has been sent home for concussion protocol and could return as early as Friday if he passes. The Cats are in Buffalo tonight without their best player.
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