It seems as though refereeing in the NHL has been getting consistently worse. a referee should never be angry and yet we see them emotional and angry often.
Except that hockey (and other sports) fans have been saying that for the 60 or so years I have been watching sports. Just like my grandmother said life was getting tougher every year and no one could survive, but here we are.
If you ever have a chance to talk with a ref, you will probably get a different opinion. There was even a book out some 10 years ago where several discuss their worst calls. They are very open about it. In the end, they say they just have to trust that their experienced eyes see what they think they see.
And, MTL do themselves no favors with this. Stars broadcast showed Julien several times barking at the ref, more than I can ever recall seeing.
When Gainey brought so many former Canadians down to Texas, they rarely called out refs. They accepted penalties and fines. They understood class.
Looks like that is lost there in MTL now. Lastly, good teams play through bad breaks. Bad teams complain. I think a lot of their griping comes from knowing they really aren't a great or even good team right now.
That said, most fan bases can understand the frustration of 0 power plays. And even the Stars broadcast noted that slash that should have been called and alluded to another one that they "got away with." There is a chance those power plays could have changed the outcome.
And, MTL was vastly better team first 15 minutes or so, skating well enough there should probably have been a few calls.
But bad teams also tend to lack 3rd gear in the 3rd period, too. And that was the case last night.
