Refs Under The Microscope Again
from Adam Proteau of The Hockey News,
The Maple Leafs/Coyotes game Thursday night ended in controversy when Arizona defenseman Jacob Chychrun got away with a holding penalty on Leafs superstar Auston Matthews – directly in front of referee Kendrick Nicholson, who was clearly looking right at the two players – before scoring the game-winning goal in overtime.
Under the NHL’s referee-protective system, Nicholson doesn’t have to answer to the public for his blown call. That’s another column for another day. But the usual hockey status quo apologists will say he didn’t penalize Chychrun because he didn’t want to be the deciding factor in the game, which, of course, is a mound of steaming b.s., because his non-call was, without question, the deciding factor in the game. And I’d say this if the shoe was on the other foot, and it was Matthews holding Chychrun. This has nothing to do with the players or teams involved, and everything to do with an indefensible officiating culture that has festered in the NHL for far too long.
In the NFL, officials do not put their whistles away and change the standard for pass interference so that star wide receivers get mauled in the name of “competition”. In the NBA, nothing changes in terms of foul calls simply because that’s the only way non-star defenders can contain stars on offense. In every other sport, the best athletes are allowed to be the best athletes without being mugged night-in and night-out.
continued with a video of the play in question......
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