Wednesday, March 31, 2010

something I'd never seen before...

The scene - The Forum in Montreal as the Canadiens hosted the Carolina Hurricanes. Montreal is in a dogfight for the playoffs, Carolina is not. Referee Kerry Fraser is officiating his last game in Montreal after 26 years of service.
Montreal takes the early lead, dominating Carolina. Shots after one period are 18-2. Score, 1-0. Early in the second period, "the other" referee (NHL hockey games have two refereees and two linesmen) some rookie official, calls a delayed penalty against Montreal and forgets to blow the whistle. The puck is inadvertently put in the Montreal net by one of their own players, and "the other" referee calls it a goal after review because he failed to blow the whistle in time. In the discussion, you can plainly see Kerry Fraser shaking his head and disagreeing. Score 1-1.

Later on that period, the play is in the Montreal end and a Carolina player takes a dive 5 feet in front of Kerry Fraser looking for a penalty call. Fraser smiles and shakes his head... but from 110 feet away, "the other" referee blows his whistle (he found it apparently) and calls the penalty over the P.A. before Fraser could skate out to talk to him. Score 2-1 Carolina.

Are you still with me? Here is the part I have never seen before... Kerry Fraser takes "the other" refereee to the timekeepers box between plays, and gives him an on-ice, public chastising. There was finger pointing, eye glaring, and the conversation was very one sided between the 26 year vet and the rookie. For the rest of that period, and the third as well, "the other" referee did not make one call, nor did he even blow his whistle.

I've watched hockey for many, many years, and seen some poor officiating and some great officiating, but I have never, ever seen a referee publically de-ball another official before.

Very cool. Too bad Fraser is retiring... although I hear he is going higher up in the league, maybe as head of officials. For "the other" referee's sake, he better hope not.

6 comments:

thehamiltonian said...

You know what Kerry Fraser has never seen?

Wayne Gretzky's high stick.

Unknown said...

I wish that the NBA refs would do that to one another once in a while.

gcrl said...

oh how i loathed kerry fraser in the mid 90s...

Dan McAvinchey said...

Technically, since Carolina has not been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, we are indeed in a dogfight as well. That's why they play the games!

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Collective Troll said...

de-ball is a term that is used far too seldom... I would love the chance to de-ball some roller derby refs! I think they work the NHL on the side...

Doc said...

Reading the game write up, it sounding like that rookie ref was making bad calls on both ends of the ice.

Canes are 5 points out of the 6, 7 and 8 seeds with 5 games left. Win all five and have one of those teams win only 2, then they're in!

Go Canes!