It Takes a Stiff Back Bone

Alex Ovechkin gets booted at home.  Does that take a stiff back bone, or not??:

When I go back through my memory banks of my mind, I try to think about memorable times that I had some lopsided marbles when it comes to penalty calls.  Believe me, there have been numerous times when one team deserves more penalties than the other team.  And I would say that is true with the new standard of play now more than it used to be.

Back to racking my mind, going through my mental database of lopsided penalty calls.  Guess what?  90% of them happened against the visiting team OR at some "neutral site" or event, like a National Championship or All-Star Festival, where there is no home crowd per se.

I can think of five times, three of which involved a WCHA game:

• The time the Gophers took just a boat load of penalties against Mankato, and Chris Harrington took a 10 minute Misconduct for shattering his stick over the cross bar, in protest of a power play 5 on 3 goal.  This all happened in the 2nd period, and when we left the ice at the conclusion of that period, I can't remember any other time where the building actually SHOOK from the thunderous "boo's" that showered down upon us.

• The time UMD was playing UND in Duluth, and a number of calls went against the home team, the last of which was a called off goal at the 3rd period buzzer, which would have tied the game and sent it into OT (this was wayyyyy before replay).  That was the one time I had never before seen so much garbage rain down on the ice.  There was a fan that tried to attack the referee, and this guy got whooped up on by the cops.  We were escorted out the building.

• Once at UMD for a holiday tournament, UMD was playing Boston University.  There were numerous calls that went against BU, all deserved, and at the end of the game, I saw a coach against ref tirade that was something like this [see video].

• I seriously felt like the locals were coming after me with tars, and feathers, lighted torches, and pitch forks once in Green Bay...I was reffing Green Bay against Waterloo in the old Brown County Coliseum (what a dump), and the home team took the majority of the penalties.  At about the 10:00 mark of the 3rd period, Waterloo called a time out, and the PA blasted "Three Blind Mice" and put my name up on the scoreboard message board.  My name was called out for the rest of the game, and at the conclusion of the game, the home team's coach told me what he really felt about my performance that night.  I was also escorted out of the building by Brown County's finest that night.

• In Proctor, MN, at a Pee Wee A tournament,  my partner and I rang Proctor up for a bunch of penalties in the championship game of their Invitational Tourney.  That was my first introduction to really being verbally accosted by a mob, because you had to walk through the lobby to get to the refs room (which, I kid you not, was a broom closet!).  We got verbally abused again when leaving the building, and I was told to "Never Come Back!"  Well...that was about 1993, and I haven't been back since.

What's my point here?  I will just say something like this -- whenever the home team gets swept in a WCHA series, everyone is grumpy, angry, downright hostile.  I can go through my mind and think of many other instances where I had lopsided penalties, but they typically all involve the visiting team.  

I am just saying it is human nature, and if you try to combat this by being a 100% "Book" Referee, you will not go very far.  "Book" referees are the strict disciplinarians who call everything right by the book. Theses guys are told they have "no feel" for the game.  I agree.  A "Book" Referee can be good...but...he will never be great.

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