- Jun 13, 2010
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The rule itself is not subjective. The linesmen are tasked with calling it to the highest level of accuracy possible. Which is why replays were implemented to begin with rules like offsides and goal reviews. Notice how they weren't implemented for tripping or cross-checking? Because those are not binary, yes/no rules. Offsides, however, is.You say that like offside was never a subjective call, which is false. Look at rule changes since the league’s inception.
The NHL was willing to free up a bit of objectivity to reduce the potential for injury. That's fine. The issue would come up when the linesman believes the offensive player will get to the puck first, waives it off, and the dman gets there first but the resulting play leads to a goal against. But honestly, how often does that really happen? The majority of the time, the dman will get the tie-breaker and icing is called. But if enough instances of this occurred, I would support the ability of the coach to challenge.Icing most certainly does include subjective elements. It’s only an objective call in the most clear-cut circumstances.
You're conflating several things here, and what was done 90 years ago up until video replay was available is irrelevant. The game evolves and every single professional sport and sports team has embraced the implementation of technology. As has been explained, offsides is an objective rule with very clear parameters. It is the responsibility of the league and refs to ensure the rules are upheld to the greatest extent possible, even if video replay is needed. When we talk about subjectivity, we are talking cross-checking, tripping, slashing, etc because of the wide range possibilities that exist within the dynamic game. Those things don't exist when it comes to off-sides and the scoring of the goal doesn't change that. It just doesn't. It's irrelevant. It's like when a penalty is called against a team, the offending team can't score a goal because the instant they touch the puck, the play is dead. The scoring of the goal does not usurp the rule.A referee making a mistake is not “subjectivity”.Normal human mistakes were made on offside calls for 90 years, and nobody saw this as an urgent issue. It’s just part of the game, sometimes the ref sees the high stick and sometimes he doesn’t, either way you play on. That isn’t subjectivity, a high stick is a high stick, but this is in no way a game that was designed to be stopped and re-played every time a high stick happens.
Crappy argument. Then don't go to the game or don't watch the came if it bothers you that much. The fans reaction is irrelevant. How loud does the arena get when the goal is called back in favor of the home team? It works both ways. The "but the fans" is literally the worst argument that one could use here.You have obviously never had the experience of being in the arena when a key goal is scored, having the whole place explode into a frenzy, then everything dies down and descends into a chorus of soft boos while the ref argues with the coach, the players skate to their bench looking up at the scoreboard, the ref finally goes over to talk to the scorekeeper, the ref comes back and announces the review to a louder chorus of boos, then the refs conduct the review while the Jumbotron shows frame-by-frame replays while 18000 people squint to see exactly where a skate was at a particular millisecond, then the ref comes out an announces no-goal to extremely loud boos, then the ref goes over and argues with the other coach, eventually the coach sends out his guys for the next shift, then the furor dies down into a discontented mumble while they get set for the faceoff, and the loudspeakers play “let’s go ____ clap clap clap” which nobody participates in as they settle back down.
That feeling of the air slowly going out of a balloon deeply, deeply sucks. In live-arena time that turnaround of several minutes feels like it takes forever, and it leaves the building dead and the game changed. Over what? A guy picking up his foot at 48:09:08 instead of 48:09:09? It’s not worth it. People are paying to be entertained, not frustrated to tears.
"Let's review this play. The puck didn't cross the goal line but the fans already cheered so we can't call it back." See how absolutely ludicrous that sounds?
Then don't go. Easy.I went to a football bowl game yesterday that took over FOUR HOURS to play.
I’m not even going to write more about it. FOUR HOURS.
That wasn't solely directed at you, that was for everyone. But I'm glad you have that mature stance.Boy was tonight the wrong night for you to pull THAT card. Here’s my post from our GDT about two hours ago:
I’m perfectly happy to watch an NHL where my team gets screwed by calls — guess what, I already watch that 82 games a year! It’s sports, bad calls happen. Come at me with terrible calls. 90% of the sports fan experience is being mad about something, so nothing changes.
What I don’t want to watch is a stupid mini-game between the coaches where they try find a way to screw each other out of good hockey goals by litigating irrelevant crap that happened elsewhere on the ice.
The game within the game is part of the game. Again, fan reactions do not matter. One thing that doesn't get called out enough here is that, these reviews only happen when a coach initiates the challenge. There are 1,312 games in the league total. Last year, there were 126 challenges. Assuming there's only 1 per game, that's 1 per 11 games and 86% were successful, so that suggests that the majority of the time there is sufficient evidence to get the call correct.
Again, such a minute part of the game in all reality that it's difficult to feel bad when people whine about it. There are tv timeouts that take longer. If you're so concerned about fans and cheering and energy and flow in a game, why not go after TV timeouts?