Do we need 2 refs or linesman anymore?

[DickSmehlik]

With refs swallowing their whistles, resulting in power plays being near or at all time lows, and with replay determining more and more plays on the ice, does the NHL still need to have 4 officials on the ice? Fights are also become rarer so the need to have 2 linesmen there to break those up will decrease.

The 2 referee system is not that old according by NHL standards.

 

[Mayor Bee]

The original reason for going to the two-ref system was because there was too much crap taking place behind the play. My idea was to simply enable linesmen to make calls on that rather than adding an extra official, but they never asked me.

I do think that the league needs to revert to a one-ref, two-linesman crew system. Keep the crew of three together for a season and allow them to develop some chemistry as far as how they prefer the game to be called, rather than constantly shuttling guys off-crew all over the continent. I think a big part of the inconsistency in officiating is because of these constant mismatches, where you'll have one ref who calls a tight game and one who prefers to let a lot go.

 

[thelos]

I hate how often refs get in the way of the players/puck in the offensive zone. There's got to be a better way for them to follow the play without interfering

 

[Space Herpe]

With refs swallowing their whistles, resulting in power plays being near or at all time lows, and with replay determining more and more plays on the ice, does the NHL still need to have 4 officials on the ice? Fights are also become rarer so the need to have 2 linesmen there to break those up will decrease.

The 2 referee system is not that old according by NHL standards.

Will the refs swallow their whistles less if there is only one of them on the ice?

 

[jbeck5]

I hate how often refs get in the way of the players/puck in the offensive zone. There's got to be a better way for them to follow the play without interfering

It's harder than you think.

You can have the flow moving clockwise in the zone and as ref you stay on the outside(obviously, you're not going into the slot) and behind the play, but all of a sudden the player reverses it and BAM you're in the way. Nothing the ref can do there.

 

[Hisch13r]

There'd be less calls with less officials...

 

[Beerfish]

It's bizarre that a sport like hockey has 4 officials on the ice at once and soccer has one.

 

[Davebo*]

I'd settle for ONE competent official.

 

[Finnish your Czech]

It's bizarre that a sport like hockey has 4 officials on the ice at once and soccer has one.

There isn't too much difference between a linesman in soccer and hockey

 

[PensBandwagonerNo272*]

I think two refs is fine as there is less chance of getting the call wrong. And that is the whole point.

 

[Mattilaus]

I don't really feel like linesmen are necessary anymore. Just get the refs to call offsides. If they are wrong and it results in a goal there will just be a review anyways so why do we need guys standing directly on the line all the time?

 

[KaseMeOutside]

the refs don't do their jobs, i always see them staring at players who are holding or crosschecking and they do nothing we may as well not have any refs at all if they aren't going to interpret rules correctly

 

[Michael Farkas]

I don't really feel like linesmen are necessary anymore. Just get the refs to call offsides. If they are wrong and it results in a goal there will just be a review anyways so why do we need guys standing directly on the line all the time?

As someone that has been a ref and a linesman, this would be very hard...

 

[Ron*]

I hate how often refs get in the way of the players/puck in the offensive zone. There's got to be a better way for them to follow the play without interfering

You should try it one day. Lace on a pair of skates and try to continuously avoid up to 11 skaters flying around on the ice while trying to watch EVERYTHING that is happening.

It's unrealistic to "hate" that. It's part of the game, and always will be.

 

[ottawa]

I don't really feel like linesmen are necessary anymore. Just get the refs to call offsides. If they are wrong and it results in a goal there will just be a review anyways so why do we need guys standing directly on the line all the time?

They're there to control the emotions on the ice too you know, imagine 2 refs there to handle 10-12 players on the ice during a brawl.

 

[Mattilaus]

As someone that has been a ref and a linesman, this would be very hard...

Well as I said, if the call is wrong and it leads to a goal then there would be a challenge anyways. The onus is more on the players to get, it right for fear of a potential goal not being counted, rather than the linesman to get it right for fear of allowing a bad goal now. Onus used to be on linesmen and now it is on the players which is what makes me question if they are necessary anymore.

Edit:

They're there to control the emotions on the ice too you know, imagine 2 refs there to handle 10-12 players on the ice during a brawl.

I admit I hadn't thought of that aspect.

 

[Ron*]

I don't really feel like linesmen are necessary anymore. Just get the refs to call offsides. If they are wrong and it results in a goal there will just be a review anyways so why do we need guys standing directly on the line all the time?

You clearly don't understand all the responsibilities the linesmen have during games. Suffice to say, it's a hell of a lot more then "calling offsides." I won't waste everyone's time by listing them here, if anyone is interested here is the link to the NHL rulebook. Section 5, Rule 32 addresses linesmen's responsibilities:

http://www.nhl.com/nhl/en/v3/ext/rules/2015-2016-Interactive-rulebook.pdf

 

[uncommonsense52]

One or two referees on the ice, two linesman.

One referee at an angle somewhere. Whether it's somehow a section that's enclosed off the ice in the crowd, or up in the replay room or something.

As fans, especially fans on TV, because of the fantastic angle, we're able to see many many more infractions, and are less fooled by weird angular problems. Referees on ice level basically have a two-dimensional angle at the play, compared to our three-dimensional look.

Getting a ref off the ice and looking down at the play would make an astonishing difference. Put them in a glass box in the crowd? I don't know WHERE to put them, I just know that elevating them off the ice would work magic.

 

[Mattilaus]

You clearly don't understand all the responsibilities the linesmen have during games. Suffice to say, it's a hell of a lot more then "calling offsides." I won't waste everyone's time by listing them here, if anyone is interested here is the link to the NHL rulebook. Section 5, Rule 32 addresses linesmen's responsibilities:

http://www.nhl.com/nhl/en/v3/ext/rules/2015-2016-Interactive-rulebook.pdf

There's really no reason to be snooty about it. I apologize if my lack of understanding of what linesmen do offended you as it clearly seems to have.

 

[Beville]

Can clearly tell the OP isn't a referee...

Or a lino for that matter.

4 is best, trust.

 

[Butch 19]

the 4th on-ice official has been a total failure. Too may obvious things still get missed.

There are 2 ways to fix this:

1. let the linesmen help out the refs and advise them on what they saw - and vise versa

2. if #1 is not used, then put a official in the NHL box at ice level, to be a replay official. Give him the authority to call penalties / offsides / anything actually


It continues to amaze me how many times the 4th official gets in the way of the play. 3 maximum on the ice.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

If we eliminate offsides like we should then we can take out 2 linesman and allow the refs to call icings.

 

[Michael Farkas]

A lot of non-officials are very quick to assign double duty to anyone on the ice that is striped. Frankly, it's a pretty big mistake.

The 1 ref, 2 linesman and one "eye in the sky" method could work. But that would cause a good deal of confusion as play would have to be stopped by someone not on the ice in all likelihood. Thus, eliminating a delayed penalty for an "eye in the sky" call...as communication down to a referee might not always be feasible/possible/effective...

Obviously, officials will never get a fair shake on this board (every fourth thread is about officiating) but these guys do a hell of a job for the speed of the game down there...but that's neither here nor there I suppose, you only notice a ref when he does something you perceive to be "bad"...what can you do, that's the nature of it...but I don't think giving each one more to worry about, more ice to cover and more "tasks" is the way to make things "better" from a gameplay perspective...

 

[Puckclektr]

Use one linseman and two refs. The linseman calls both offside lines and the refs take over the icing and linsemen duties on their own side. Linseman doesn't leave the neutral zone.