About the officiating, what's going on in the AHL? It seems from the very few games I watch on TV that it's been on a serious downturn the last few years. NCAA and ECHL seems to be fairly consistent over the years but the AHL has been terrible lately.
Keep in mind that you only see what the director wants you to see. I can look where I want and see more most of the time. It is probably worse than you think!
My idea is that all of the good AHL refs get called up to the NHL fairly quickly. All of the mediocre refs, who stay in the AHL, get called up a year or two later than the good ones. All of the bad AHL refs stay here for a few more seasons and maybe they quit, or get called up to the NHL to become bad NHL refs. So, we lose the best refs soon and have to put up with the dregs for 2 to 4 more years. How many AHL refs
never get promoted? I have no idea what the correct answer is to that question in terms of numbers or percentage.
Previously, I blamed bad officiating on expansion of the NHL, but that was 1998 to 2000 for the 4 teams previous to Las Vegas. That led to poor officiating when the Admirals came into the AHL in 2001 for a few years. It got better in a year or two, but the last 2 or 3 years have been
awful at times. I don't remember seeing Stephen Reneau before this weekend, but he doesn't belong in the AHL IMO.
When you see people laying on the ice holding their face and there is no call from the two refs, you wonder what they missed and maybe I missed. Then you see a little ticky-tack penalty and that gets called. It drives me crazy! I haven't watched as many NCAA games in recent years because the Badgers have been in the cellar ever since the BIG10 had their own conference along with Notre Dame. When the Badgers are playing well, they show more of their games on TV here in Milwaukee.
I went to a NCAA game wife my wife at MSOE a few years ago. One guy from some school in Illinois in their conference got called for boarding (5 minutes) in all three periods. He got thrown out when an MSOE player starting fighting him behind the goal after the third one. I guess you can board people all day long but you can't throw a single punch in the NCAA. What the heck kind of rules are those?
I will say that the NFL has had issues with officiating in recent years. They have a replay and STILL get the call wrong. Clay Mathews got called the first 3 games for roughing the QB. I have been hit harder at my local grocery store. At the end of the Packers season, Julio Jones has a ball hit him in the hands, hit him in the thigh and then bounce up 2 yards out of bounds and it gets called a catch. How do you explain those kind of calls? There is a lack of accountability in sports officiating. If I was that bad at my job, I would get fired.