Don't you just get a kick out of it when the media loves to play up how officials botch a call [they even have a website for this stuff!], but very little is said WHEN THEY NAIL IT!
The WCHA Boys Nailed it NOT only ONCE, BUT TWICE!!
It takes some serious stones to make these calls when a trip to the Frozen Four is on the line. Good job, Marco Hunt and Todd Anderson!
Sometimes there is nothing like a good old fashioned line brawl. Our hometown boy, Dustin Byfuglein starts the whole skirmish. This happened last night (March 29, 2009) in Chicago. I get a kick out of the PA blaring "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" over the speakers!
Officiating Crew: Refs -- Paul Devorski (#10) and Mike Hasenfrantz (#30) Lines -- Dan Schachte (#47 - American) and Lyle Seitz (#61 - American)
Here's a clip of highlights from Game 2 semifinal match that I refereed - Seibu Rabbits v. Oji Eagles (notice the "no goal" wave off at the 3:40 mark) - Seibu won the game 3-2 in OT.
I was just perusing through my newspaper today, and I came across this gem [read here] --
"This referee champions competition, not obsession"
Here's a short excerpt, written by Gail Rosenblum:
Referee Curby Rogers leaned forward and waited another second before making his first call. The game hadn't started. This one was on the crowd.
"Parents," said Rogers, 6-foot-2 and pushing 220 pounds. He spoke slowly to the dozen or so moms and dad and grandmothers line up along the gym wall, his voice deep, his face softening into a disarming grin. "These are fourth- and fifth-graders. They are learning to play basketball."
Rogers, who knows basketball inside and out, was not going to miss a thing. Not traveling or a three-second violation. Not small hand checks or body bumps. But he was going to let most of it go. Everybody clear?
Everybody's clear.
"Thank you," Rogers said, busting up in laughter and heading to the court.
Now, in hockey we don't "let everything go" at the youth level, but we do realize that (A) the kids aren't playing for the Stanley Cup, (B) parents should be encouraging their kids, not belittling them, the coach, or the refs, and (C) some people need to 'Relax, it's just a game".
Is the "Goal" or "No Goal" signal after being on the phone at the penalty box (the penalty shot signal is a real close second). If there is ever any time for "flair", this is it.
Some comrades of mine have always discussed this (note: the "no goal" signal is best done with your helmet in your hand), and we have also discussed officials we admire in other sports. We always mention Ed Hochuli (even though he goofed in the San Diego game)...no one could signal first down with the big triceps like him.
So...
I had to laugh when I saw something that included (a) the NHL, (b) the most dramatic signal you can make, and (c) Ed Hochuli in one spot [read here].
Here's the excerpt here:
Hey Booch,
What's your take on the little football-style speeches the refs do these days after going upstairs to review a play? Personally, I think they should just stick to either pointing to center ice or flashing the "safe" signal.
Dan T. Lake in the Hills, Ill.
This is an excellent query on two levels.
1. You are right; the simple point and "safe" call has much more of a theatrical result. It's like a silent movie.
2. NHL referees are woefully inept in their explanation of on-ice interpretations. They sound like college sports anchors reading the news. (Boom goes the dynamite!) They all need to go to an Ed Hochuli camp for miked-up officials. Now, I understand that Ed, an NFL referee, made an erroneous call in a Denver Broncos-San Diego Chargers game last season, but that's not important right now. The man is a genius when it comes to explaining calls to the crowd and television viewers. He is the Edward R. Murrow of miked refs.
Go to YouTube and check out some of these performances. One during an Atlanta Falcons game still mesmerizes me. It was flawless! It was like Richard Burton does "Hamlet" does intentional grounding. We could send NHL referees to a weeklong Hochuli camp during the summer. While there, referees also could enjoy the benefits of Hochuli's cutting-edge instruction in biceps and triceps training and arm waxing. There simply is no downside to this. Until this happens, NHL referees should just point or wave off.
Playoffs, state tournaments and championships are what the hockey season is all about.
This week we will have the Minnesota Hockey Youth Tournaments all throughout the state. I know that I will be taking in the action in Richfield, St. Cloud, and New Hope. It's also an exciting time with the WCHA Final Five this weekend in St. Paul.
The NHL also recognizes this time of the year, too!:
In a continuation from my first five, I am going to round this out to make it an even ten. As said before, I got this idea after finding Jamie McLennan's blog from his experiences in the Asia League last year. His posts are absolutely hilarious! [Read them here].
By the way, I do remember when McLennan played for the Wild. I had no idea what comedian he was. Check this video out:
Now for my Top 5:
5. Say What?
I always get questions from people about the communication in international hockey. I let them know that English is very important, and usually someone on the bench can speak English. Usually the captain of the team can speak pretty good English, too. In the Asia League, each team is allowed a certain number of imports, so any given team has 3-4 North Americans on the team, who do the bulk of the communicating. So, all in all it works out pretty well (unless you have some type of "goofy" situation break out, where you have to discuss multiple penalty situations to those on the scorer's table -- they sometimes have a hard time when I announce goals and assists (I was told by the Japanese that my English pronunciations are hard to understand -- like the number "twelve" is spoken differently, and that even the way we say "first" and "fast" are confusing...oh well.)
I do have a funny story of speaking English that did not involve the Asia League. I was in Torino, Italy, working the World University Games, and I was lining a game with a Russian referee (who was a comic in his own right) and a Russian linesman. The teams playing were Japan and Italy. The Russian Ref, Gorsky, called a penalty shot against Japan. So, the Italian guy goes in on a penalty shot, dekes the goalie, and simultaneously biffs it by doing a "toe pick", which wipes out the goalie, the net, the whole works. The puck did cross the line before this "yard sale" and it didn't affect the goalies ability to defend the shot. Well...the Japan captain came over immediately to complain to Gorsky. He was announcing the goal at the penalty bench. Gorsky just kept saying (in my best Russian voice immitation), "GOAL" and would point like giving the goal signal. The Japanese captain kept on, but Gorsky just kept saying, "GOAL" and pointing. Finally, the exasperated captain says, "WHO HERE SPEAK ENGLISH?!?" Gorsky says, "No one. GOAL!" I tried not to pee my pants laughing, but I giggled for the next five minutes of the game.
4. Stand-By Stanley might just do that and Only That
When I had the chance to go to Shanghai, China to work a few games, I was told that the stand by ref would be a Korean. Well, I am on a separate flight than the stand by. Fast forward to when I get to my first game. I don't see any equipment bag for the stand by ref. I just think to myself, "maybe things are different here in Asia...maybe he has equipment somewhere else...this isn't the first difference in customs I discovered.
So...after the third game, we are all out at a restaurant, having a few beverages, when I finally have to ask him, "What would you do if I got hurt?" He looks at me quizzically, "Hurt? I don't understand?" I say, "you know...if I hurt my knee or something..." He pulls out his cell phone so he can look at his Korean/English dictionary. After checking out what 'hurt' means, he says, "Oh...injured." So I say, "Yes, injured. What do you do if I get injured? What equipment will you wear?"
He finally says, "I don't understand stand by." WOW! 3. Trying not to Create and International Incident
I couldn't help it anymore...the guy had been dominating the computer for 16 hours straight now! I snapped.
What am I talking about is on my first trip to the Far East, right before I left, wouldn't you know it, but my laptop crashed. There was no way I was going to get it fixed before I left town. So I was at the mercy of using the guest computer at the hotel. Thank God there was one always readily available at the hotel in Seoul, South Korea, where I was stationed for 2 weeks. The problem happened when I got to Shanghai, China. The problem wasn't the hotel (it was an extremely nice, new, modern Howard Johnson hotel), the problem wasn't the hotel staff (they were so-so in understanding my English), the problem was the chain-smoking guy, sucking on tea, playing internet poker for 16 straight hours on the only guest computer at the hotel!!! I checked at about 10 pm one night...he was there. I checked in the morning after I awoke about 8 a.m., he was still there. I continued to check every couple of hours throughout the day...HE WAS STILL THERE, sucking down one cigarette after another, paying ABSOLUTELY no attention to the fact that I was waiting to use the computer. Finally about 5 pm that day I checked again. I told them I wanted to use that computer. The nice little Chinese gal told me it was being used. I said, "He's been using it for 16 hours!" She nodded that 'yeah, she knew.' AND THEN I SAW THAT HE CHECKED IN FOR THAT COMPUTER AT 4 PM THE PREVIOUS DAY. HE HAD BEEN ON THE THING FOR OVER 24 HOURS!
That's when I snapped. I said, "Is that the guest computer for the hotel or his?!? This isn't right! What right does he have to tie up a computer for over 24 hours?!? What is he doing at the hotel anyway to be on a computer for over 24 hours?!? I just want to use it for 15 minutes!" She saw that I was pissed. She got some other gal to come into the room, and the whole time "Smokey the Poker Player" was just puffing away, totally ignoring the death glare that I was giving him. He knew darn well I was talking about him.
They led me to another room and had me use another computer. Unbelievable! (not sure how long "Smokey" stayed on that computer).
2. Mi-Ka-Ta!
The Japanese love their Karaoke. When I was in Hokkaido, Japan (don't know if you know your Japanese geography at all, but this is the northern most island, and the temps/climate there is very similar to what we experience in Minnesota -- it is also their hotbed of hockey, too), I was there for one week and went out for Karaoke 4 nights! It was a hoot! I had so much fun and so did they!
The two American songs they liked that I sung the most were The Beatle's "All You Need is Love" and Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say, I Love You" ( they told me to sing that song, since it was really popular at one time...who woulda thunk?). Although, I did teach the nuances and joys of singing, "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond.
(you don't have to watch the whole thing, but I learned some of the hand gestures, the WOW WOW parts, the MI KA TA parts and the PAO PAOPAO parts. Now that's funny...I don't care who you are!
1. The Hosts with the Most!
Overall, the trips over there were fantastic. I can't say enough about how well I was treated. They took me out to great restaurants, escorted me all over the place, really watched out for my well being and comforts. I had awesome hosts in all three countries: Korea, China and Japan. I am really grateful for the opportunity and the opportunity to associate with such great people. It just makes me want to say, "Thank You"
So, when you are in a totally foreign country and you have 12 hours of time to kill before you head to the rink for your game (that's 12 hours...because you wake up at 4 am, because it is 1pm of the previous day in the US - sigh!), you search the internet for anything to kill time.
I decided to do a search on hockey in Asia and I came across a series of blogs from last season that nearly made me wet my pants laughing (if you have lots of time to kill, like me, I would suggest you read them all - THEY ARE HILARIOUS!)
After reading that, I decided to do my very own Top 10, although I am going to short-shift it and give you the Top 5 now and the rest later...
10. Sometimes Integrity is Thrown out the Window for Politics -- Without going into much detail here at all, let's just say that there are calls for the home team that are questionable. Now I know why they like American referees to ref their games.
9. Any Progress the US has Made in Banning Smoking is NOT the Case Here -- Ever refereed with a partner who has a smoke in between periods? Now, granted, they are polite and they go do it in the bathroom, but, geez, this is 2009 and not 1959...having a heater between shifts? Come on. I also love the fact (not) that smoking is so prevelant in public places. I would never imagine going out to an establishment after a game in the US, and have 5 of the 10 people at the table chain-smoking! Wow.
8. The More You Yell, The More You Can Change Their (not mine) Mind -- See number 6 in Mclellan's blog up ahead. The players here want me to call all big checks penalties. They find out right away that I ain't changing my mind (I also don't think they are used to referees telling them to stop their whining).
7. How Many People Are Needed to Run a Penalty Box? -- Seriously, you need a time keeper, a score keeper, the public address announcer (I will give you two here, because they announce everything in the native language and in English), and one person to run the door for each box. I swear the penalty keeper areas have 15 people running the thing. The place is Huge! I shudder to think that back home, some people carry on two duties at once, where I think here you have the "government" mindset of one man working while 3 men watch.
6. The Food Here -- SERIOUSLY NOW -- is Soooo Good! -- This is no joke. You like Oriental Food -- Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc. -- you would love the food here. I am telling you, if you have ever had Korean BBQ, you know what good food is all about. Don't get me wrong, there are some things I have seen that make my skin crawl -- having a 10 gal fish tank with live eels in it to choose for your entre' = yikes! I was also warned that in China the only thing they don't eat that has legs is the table. Dogs, cats, rats...they are all fair game. KFC seems to be popular over here, but in China I guess it is 'Kentucky Fried Rat' (needless to say, I have NOT eaten at any KFC's here). However, the food here has been totally awesome.
Side note: I am a big fan of craft beers, and I just don't like the taste of light beer. Well, that's all they have over. Kind of the same way in Europe, where you say you want a beer, they don't ask, "what kind?" They bring you a beer. So, anyway, I asked a couple of nights ago if they have dark beer. My Korean buddy and linesman, Mr. Byun, tells me, "Turn light off...dark beer!" I got a good laugh out of that one...a Korean telling jokes in English!
best done with your helmet in your hand), and we have also discussed officials we admire in other sports. We always mention Ed Hochuli (even though he goofed in the San Diego game)...no one could signal first down with the big triceps like him.
