Ola said:
I know the refs can be horrible in these tournaments, but it always goes both ways in europe. Also its been pretty obvious that Canadian players dive atleast as much as euros, but without a doubt european players knows whats called in europe better then the Canadian kids and are better to take advantage of it.
The way Canadian refs runs the World Cup for example is beyond embarrassing, no matter how a game is played the Canadian refs always manage to give the european team one more penalty and for some reason Canada always get their penaltys with 15 seconds to go in a period so the european team have to split the PP, 15 second in one period means that not much can be done and they are forced to go at it for the remaining 105 secs with cold legs... Or how in the latest WC in the European Group a averege of 3 interference of goaltender was called per game. The European teams where told whenever you touch the goalie your out by the canadian ref, in the north american group and the playoffs not a single penalty like that was called. Strange. I would like to hear what McQuire have to say in thoose games. Its been gooing on for almost 20 years in 6-7 tournaments. IMO its a big diffrence between a ref that deliberately trys to give his country a advantage then some idiot amature ref in Europe who is in over his head...
Ola you have no idea what you're talking about. To say Canadian hockey players dive just as much as Europeans is ridiculous. The reason you will rarely see a Canadian player dive is because we don't tolerate that crap here. If you dive you are going to here about from you coach and your teammates. In Europe not only is diving encouraged, it's taught and practiced. The Russians and Swedes are the worst offenders with the head first dive where they snap their head back and kick their feet up in the air. They must think they're playing soccer.
As for your assertion that Canadian refs are biased during international tournaments in Canada, once again your statement is ludicrous. First, how often do we even host IIHF sanctioned tournaments in Canada? The World Championships and the u-18 tournament is held in Europe every year. The WJC is held in Canada every 3-4 years and officials from every country are used. There was an 8 year gap between World Cups (1996-2004). The only tournament held in Canada on a regular basis is the u-17 hockey challenge and it's not even a IIHF sanctioned event.
Regarding your statement that the European teams always seemed to get one more penalty than Canada in the WC and that Canada often received a penalty in the final minute of a period, I decided to go through the box scores from the Canadian/European games from the WC. Here are the results.
Canada vs. Slovakia (Sept 1) Powerplays: Canada 5, Slovakia 3.
# of penalties in final two minutes of a period: Canada 1 (Hannon 19:02, period 3)
Slovakia: 1 (Hlinka 19:48, period 2)
Canada vs. Russia (Sept 4) Powerplays: Canada 4, Russia 4.
# of penalties in final two minutes of a period: Canada 2 (Iginla 19:02, period 1, Hannan 18:09, period 2. Russia 3 (Yashin 19:00, period 1, (Kovalev 18:09, period 2, Kovalenko 19:49, period 3)
*Hannan and Kovalev penalties were coincidental minors. Iginla penalty came two seconds after Yashin. Kovalenko penalty came with 11 seconds left in came. Of Canada's 4 pp's, one was 2 seconds in duration, the other 11 seconds.
Canada vs. Slovakia (Sept 8) Powerplays: Canada 3 Slovakia 3
# of penalties in final two minutes of a period: Canada 0, Slovakia 0.
Canada vs. Czech Republic (Sept 11) Powerplays: Canada 1 Czech 1
# of penalties in final two minutes of a period: Canada 0, Czech 0
Canada vs. Finland (Sept 14) Powerplays: Canada 1, Finland 1
# of penalties in final two minutes of a period: Canada 0, Finland 0
As for your statement that an average of three goaltender interference penalties per game were called in games involving European teams at the 2004 World Cup that is a bit of an exaggeration. Actually, there were just 2 goalie intereference penalties called in total, one to Sweden's Tomas Holmstrom, the other to Ruutu of Finland.
Canada has been putting up with incompetent and biased officiating in Europe since 1972 and probably before that as well. In fact, when Canadian teams prepare for international events they always prepare and attempt to adjust to the poor officiating.
Before you make statements like this next time make sure you do your homework.
