Welcome to the seat that is known as the Editor's Chair where I decide to give you my humble opinions which I can't waffle on too much on the Soapbox nor the Podcast.
I'm going to talk again this week, like I have done before, on this nice little subjects:
- D.O.P.S
- Refereeing
D.O.P.S or should that be Dopes based on some of their decisions made since they first arrived on the scene here. Unlike the NHL, people know who is behind it but for some strange phenomenon: we don't in the UK. Talk about a lack of transparency. One minute we're told it's decisions made by people overseas, next minute Todd Kelman telling Cardiff fans that it's just one person over here. Make your god damn freaking minds up and tell us the right description and who is behind it. All I want, and I am sure other fans too, is a bit of common sense and that word again: transparency! It's not hard is it?
As for the decision making, some of it has been absolutely laughable shall we say it? Let me look at one particular incident just last weekend, in Milton Keynes. Yes, you've seen the clip on some social media outlet involving Paul Crowder. How the heck did that, on the night, get called for a minor two minute for slashing. More like two minutes for attempted decapitation on ice. Sorry Cardiff fans, there's intent and there's malice. But then again, have you seen who the man with the armbands was? A certain person who missed two incidents in Cardiff last season when we went there and the Devils scored both times. The subsequent review, and if MK hadn't put it in I would have been clearly astonished, saw Crowder suspended for three games. Yes, just three games. It deserves more, and once more we are wondering how the fudge D.O.P.S are making such ludicrous decisions. It just has me baffled.
Now on part two of my mini-rant, referees. Yes I appreciate that the officials can't call everything and without them we wouldn't have a sport to watch but so when so many things are being missed on a nightly basis then you have to start questioning are some of the people officiating up to the job in hand. Granted I wouldn't like doing the job, I never liked refereeing a football match particularly when one of the sides is a bunch of your mates, but when decision making goes wrong then it goes wrong in a big way.
We're told the sport is investing in the referee programme but we're still stuck with the three stripey team and not four. People might say that we don't have the numbers to cover it with four, we would do if we could get young aspiring stripes to be fast-tracked like they do in football. If a referee is decent enough in football, he goes on this fast-track programme and is nurtured to be a top level official. I've seen this happen. So why can't hockey do something similar?
So is the funding actually there? Makes you wonder. The sooner we have a four person officiating team week in, week out the lesser chances things will be missed and coaches won't be going mental when things go wrong like they did on Sunday at the Arena. Also, there should be a referee's assessor in the crowd monitoring the official's performance and if they are below par then he/she should be made accountable for it. If we had enough officials, drop those underperformers down to NIHL for a game or two before giving them another EIHL match.
But then that's me being me. Some of you will think yeah, Mark's bang on the money here and some will think: erm nah! And with this that's me signing out for another week, hopefully I will be a bit more happier next time but don't count those chickens too much. OK?
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