WJC Group A: Dec 29 GDT - Norway vs. Canada

[Mathletic]

Did anyone just catch Burkie talking about the ref calling a moment ago?

He said when they went into Nagano and Salt Lake the one thing they fought for with bettman were NHL reafs because they are the best in the world,it's something they insisted on.This time they did'nt and with the way they are trying to implement the no tolerance policy here so far it's terrifying to think that many games won't be reffed by NHL zebras.And man,so am i.

NHL refrees are biased with the way the NHL runs its business. The NHL is there to make money and get people into the stands. Not applying the rules correctly to have a fair game.

That tournament could absolutely stink if it's called like this.We're hockey fans,we wanna see hockey.

reading comments tonight kind of makes me think about what people want. I personally want a clean game where offensive players are free to go and 4th liners go at 4th liners cleanly. That's not what I saw tonight and people are defending players who went over the line ... going over the line is also puting your stick up on a guy's waist even though it's not affecting the play

I'm with you 100% that the penalty on Bourdon shouldn't have been called for roughing or whatever that was, but I hop you agree that he should have got a penalty for interference moments before.

 

[djtino224]

You're fairly plucky.How much did Team terrific pound Finland by? And i watched the game and you sure did'nt look like world beaters to me.

I know USA didn't play well against Finland despite the win and I seriously thought that this game would be another laugher since Norway is...what they are.

Nothing was meant by it. It should be a good game Saturday.

 

[espo*]

Well,you're entitled to your opinion FSU and some of it i agree with.

But to me,penalties in hockey are a lot like a cherrycheese cake.It's a nice rich treat in moderation.Give me a slice and it's great,give me two and that's pretty damn good also.Maybe i get a little bit slothish and accept the 3rd peice of rich pie.But if i sit down and eat the whole damn pie i'll get bloated,acquire nausea and end up over the toilet puking my guts out,because too much of it makes you sick.

Thats what this game and many of the games so far have been like and i'm getting sick.It's like they've forced my mouth open and stuffed the whole damn pie down my throat and i ended getting sick as a dog.totally unenjoyable experience this game was.All because of stupid overkill with penalties.

 

[espo*]

I know USA didn't play well against Finland despite the win and I seriously thought that this game would be another laugher since Norway is...what they are.

Nothing was meant by it. It should be a good game Saturday.

my regrets,i thought you were railing on us.Apology offered.I'm sorry.

 

[ZadorovNJD*]

Just got home from the game...game was ruled by the officials. A penalty every 10 seconds and I think someone was waved out of the faceoff circle 95% of the time. Blah.

 

[Mathletic]

Well,you're entitled to your opinion FSU and some of it i agree with.

But to me,penalties in hockey are a lot like a cherrycheese cake.It's a nice rich treat in moderation.Give me a slice and it's great,give me two and that's pretty damn good also.Maybe i get a little bit slothish and accept the 3rd peice of rich pie.But if i sit down and eat the whole damn pie i'll get bloated,acquire nausea and end up over the toilet puking my guts out,because too much of it makes you sick.

Thats what this game and many of the games so far have been like and i'm geting sick.It's like they've forced my mouth open and stuffed the whole damn pie down my throat and i ended getting sick as a dog.totally unenjoyable experience this game was.All because of stupid overkill with penalties.

well pending on how you see it, I think it's more of a result of laxism during regular games. Added to the spoiler on TSN who's really blowing the games up as well. But as I said, these things have to be fixed before the tournament.

If McGuire would go on the air and say things like, hey Bettman and people from Hockey Canada, wake up ! instead of wasting money and bashing hockey players' parents, go to the IIHF meetings about the WJC and make sure the game is called right next time. Instead, he's complaining about a poor guy who's just doing his job and that guy is all alone on the ice trying to make the best he can.

 

[espo*]

well pending on how you see it, I think it's more of a result of laxism during regular games. Added to the spoiler on TSN who's really blowing the games up as well. But as I said, these things have to be fixed before the tournament.

If McGuire would go on the air and say things like, hey Bettman and people from Hockey Canada, wake up ! instead of wasting money and bashing hockey players' parents, go to the IIHF meetings about the WJC and make sure the game is called right next time. Instead, he's complaining about a poor guy who's just doing his job and that guy is all alone on the ice trying to make the best he can.

Well i agree with you there.The guys are new to how they want the game to be called and i guess i should be a little more patient with them,i know they have a tough job,it isn't easy i'll concur.Still..............35.

And yes,Hockey Canada should prioritize making sure it get's worked out.And yes..........Pierre takes his bashing a little over the top.His point could be done more stridently for sure.

 

[Macman]

instead of wasting money and bashing hockey players' parents, go to the IIHF meetings about the WJC and make sure the game is called right next time. Instead, he's complaining about a poor guy who's just doing his job and that guy is all alone on the ice trying to make the best he can.

So you finally admit the game wasn't called right? Progress at last.

The ref tonight wasn't some poor shmuck calling a beer league game. He's presumably among the elite the IIHF has to offer and he's working one of the game's premier tournaments. The fans and the world's best junior players deserve a lot more more than a guy "all alone on the ice trying to make the best he can." That attitude excuses incompetence and this tournament deserves a great deal more than that.

If I was a player out there, I wouldn't know what the hell to think or do. I've been looking forward to the Canada-U.S. game for weeks. Now I'm not sure why I should even bother.

 

[Mathletic]

Well i agree with you there.The guys are new to how they want the game to be called and i guess i should be a little more patient with them,i know they have a tough job,it isn't easy i'll concur.Still..............35.

And yes,Hockey Canada should prioritize making sure it get's worked out.And yes..........Pierre takes his bashing a little over the top.His point could be done more stridently for sure.

I never was a hockey ref, never will that's for damn sure, and I was tough with them when I played. But at one point I realized that penalties have to be called. The reason they have to called is that players have to stop making those plays because they hurt the game. Until they stop, penalties will be called. Even though sometimes I'll protect a ref who makes mistakes, like tonight maybe, I'll still protect them but it's an absolutly ridiculous joke the way the NHL is running its business and they're screwing the game of hockey. The guy making 100 bucks a night for refreeing a WJC in some local rink is doing his best and he's not the one to blame for the crap we saw tonight. Players have their role, coaches have their role, guys in the office all have a much bigger role to play in the respect of the game than just 1 single guy making the calls.

And I'll never accept those comments by McGuire saying that the refree was hurting the integrity of the game, because the one ruining it is guys like McGuire and the other bunch of clowns who blame the refs instead of taking their courage with their own hands and going to the right person and tell them the right thing to get the game back healthy. It is such an easy and disgraceful thing to blame a ref for doing his job.

 

[Mathletic]

So you finally admit the game wasn't called right? Progress at last.

The ref tonight wasn't some poor shmuck calling a beer league game. He's presumably among the elite the IIHF has to offer and he's working one of the game's premier tournaments. The fans and the world's best junior players deserve a lot more more than a guy "all alone on the ice trying to make the best he can." That attitude excuses incompetence and this tournament deserves a great deal more than that.

If I was a player out there, I wouldn't know what the hell to think or do. I've been looking forward to the Canada-U.S. game for weeks. Now I'm not sure why I should even bother.

that's not what I said, the ref made mistakes yes. But overall it was called right, and even more right than most NHL games I've seen.

you say I made progress, but most of you certainly haven't

that's certainly not incompetence because he made the calls he had to make. Maybe 5 of them were wrong out of 30 but it's still a good game from him. There's 40 players on the ice to be blamed before him.

 

[El_Scoobo]

that's not what I said, the ref made mistakes yes. But overall it was called right, and even more right than most NHL games I've seen.

you say I made progress, but most of you certainly haven't

that's certainly not incompetence because he made the calls he had to make. Maybe 5 of them were wrong out of 30 but it's still a good game from him. There's 40 players on the ice to be blamed before him.

What were your thoughts on the efforts of the linesmen??? I felt that they were far worse than the referee. For example they took waaay too long to call offside and were far too anxious throwing guys out of the faceoff circle.

 

[Peter25]

What is really embarassing for the IIHF is that they actually allowe Canadian referees to judge Canada's games in olympics. Thats just inmoral.

 

[Rotting Corpse*]

Please stop whining and tell TSN to stop whining. There are always bad calls, everywhere - hockey, soccer, basketball and boxing, ALWAYS. But the whining I witnessed watching TSN today just makes me not to want watching any of these games again.

You, my friend, need to learn the difference between a legitimate complaint, and "whining." Whining is when posters pull the "why does this always happen to me" crap. Nobody is doing that. Nobody is "whining." Nobody is claiming that reffing cost team Canada the game, because, guess what? Team Canada won the game. Nobody is saying that the reffing was against Canada or that the refs are conspiring against Canada. That would be nonsense, and yes, that would be whining.

I grow tired of this. I'm sick and tired of posters on this board playing the "whine" card and using that stupid fiddle emoticon every time a poster expresses discontent. None of the comments in this thread are "whiny." They are all legitimate complaints expressed by disgruntled hockey fans who were denied the opportunity to watch a legitimate hockey game. There's nothing wrong with showing that you are upset with the way the game was officiated because it was officiated horribly and turned a hockey game into a skills competition.

 

[Macman]

To those of you who think this is all just Canadian whining, here's a Norwegian perspective:

"It is fantastic that there is so much knowledge about the game," said Norwegian assistant coach Anders Blegeberg when asked about the Canadian booing of Norwegian penalties.

"Of course, the refereeing was terrible, take it from there. You just hope that whoever will win this tournament, the referee won't be in the middle of it, because in the first days, it has been terrible."

 

[KariyaIsGod*]

What is really embarassing for the IIHF is that they actually allowe Canadian referees to judge Canada's games in olympics. Thats just inmoral.

Uh, can't teams protest the selection of the referees if they feel it won't be fair?

Even still, it's not like the Canadian refs have helped Canada. And we've all seen just how "fair" some fo the international refs have been to Canada over the years.

 

[mymkovski]

Once again, I was able to attend the game.

The 1st half of the game was truly unwatchable. I actually felt sick to my stomach. The guy beside me said if he was one of the sponsors he'd be pretty pissed off.

By about the 2nd half of the 2nd period we started to see a bit of flow. The section of hockey was the best of the game. Not only because we scored 3 goals, but simply because there was a meaningful flow to the game. The rest of the game was crap. Its really unfortunate.

I'd also like to point out that the crowd was quieter than the Canada-Switzerland crowd. What I'm really curious about is why its so quiet when Team Canada enters the ice, especially to START the game. I was really glad to see the fans booing ALL ref calls by about halfway through this referee massacre.

 

[Nash]

that's not what I said, the ref made mistakes yes. But overall it was called right, and even more right than most NHL games I've seen.

you say I made progress, but most of you certainly haven't

that's certainly not incompetence because he made the calls he had to make. Maybe 5 of them were wrong out of 30 but it's still a good game from him. There's 40 players on the ice to be blamed before him.

I was at the game and have to say that it was an absolutely horribly officiated game. A lot of the charging and roughing calls are not even borderline calls. Same goes with a lot of the hooking. The linesman threw players out at almost every faceoff. The fans booed penalties for both teams, so it wasn't about one team feeling shafted. There was absolutely no flow to the game at all. How could there be when it was all special teams and the players weren't allowed to check each other without fear of being thrown in the penalty box? I really don't know how you can defend this officiating crew.

 

[canucksfan]

Luckily for me I worked last night and I taped this game. I wathced most of it but I admit I have fast forward some of it. Just when I thought they couldn't find a worse ref than that German ref they get this guy to do the game. It is an absolute joke. The IIHF needs to wake up. Bodychecking is not a pentaly. People say that this is European hockey. The coach of Norway was complaining about it all game. It's a disgrace. These kids work hard all year around to come and play at this tournament and they let a couple of idiots ruin games. I wish I could have went to some of these tournament games but now I'm glad I didn't get tickets. That is the worst hockey game I have ever watched.

Now I'll comment on Canada. I thought they played pretty well considering how many penatalies were called. They played great defence and their offence wasn't to bad they just need to finish more. Barker and Bourdon stepped up their play.

Hopefully, we don't get a god awful ref against the Americans because it will ruin the game for both teams. This has the potiental to be on of the best games at this tournament and hopefully the IIHF has a good ref calling the game. However, it's the IIHF so they won't have a good ref they will find a worse ref to call the game.

 

[WCR]

What is really embarassing for the IIHF is that they actually allowe Canadian referees to judge Canada's games in olympics. Thats just inmoral.

Don't forget an American Referee (Stacey Livingston) was allowed to referee the Women's Olympic Final in Salt Lake between Canada and the US.

Result?

A hilariously embarrassing final as Livingston did all she could to try to engineer an American victory.

 

[WCR]

Did anyone just catch Burkie talking about the ref calling a moment ago?

He said when they went into Nagano and Salt Lake the one thing they fought for with bettman were NHL reafs because they are the best in the world,it's something they insisted on.This time they did'nt and with the way they are trying to implement the no tolerance policy here so far it's terrifying to think that many games won't be reffed by NHL zebras.

And just how are the worlds other Referees and Linesmen supposed to develop, improve and flourish if they don't get a shot at the biggest tournaments the sport has to offer?

I'd rather have a couple of games like this one if it meant in the long run that the standard of officiating in the world's non-NHL Referees will improve.

How would people like it if no American Soccer Referees were allowed to go to the World Cup in Germany next year - instead FIFA say they will only invite English and German referees to do all the games?

 

[Resolute]

Major world championships are not meant to be training grounds. If you want these officials to develop, improve and flourish, send them to the Div II and III tournaments.

At the rate things are going, a referee is likely to seriously alter the outcome of the medal standings, and that is completely unacceptable.

 

[WCR]

At the rate things are going, a referee is likely to seriously alter the outcome of the medal standings, and that is completely unacceptable.

As McCreary was alleged to have done with the Russians in Salt Lake

 

[Resolute]

I'm not talking about allegedly altering the outcome via bias, but altering it via incompetence.