The Officiating In The Playoffs Has Been Hideous

[The Gun Of Bavaria]

1:47 left in regulation, 1-0 game and you call a chicket $hit Interference call? Are you effing kidding me?

The officiating this year has been hideous for everyone, everyteam, and every series. It's a disgrace, a disaster and a joke. How many times can you recall this many 5 on 3 PPs, this many games decided by a PP goal late in the game? Everyone is getting screwed here.

Put the effing whistles away and let them play for christ's sake. People are paying over $100 to watch stars play the game and all their seeing is 5 on 4, 5 on 3 PPs and the star players riding the pine during the penalty kill. Gary Bettman things the NHL is doing great and it couldn't be any farther from the truth. The fans are upset, the game has changed, the officiating has went from nonexistent to Orwellian and your Conference finals are featured on a channel that no one gets and no one has ever heard of.

[ShadowJet35]

There's officiating in Hockey?

[faba]

The Hockey playoffs have been decided by the referees- instead of the teams deciding the games.

[Bugg]

In the Sabres/Rangers series, they allowed Buffalo to to do everything to Jagr short of skewering him with a hockey stick, and didn't call any of it. If a Sabre touched ice within 5 feet of him, Jagr was called for a penalty. And then we had the apllication of the kick rule, which best I can tell was that if it could be a Buffalo goal it was, if the other team (the Rangers or Isles) scored, it would be disallowed.

I have stopped watching since the Rangers bit the dust. But I understand the frustration. The NHL could be the worst-run sport in North America. And the way the refs work is a big part of the problem. In this day, why not put them in a chair above the ice like a tennis ref? The have no business being on the ice.

[Thai Jet]

That has ALWAYS been a per peeve of mine with hockey. The inconsistant officiating. It varys between refs, games and even within a game. It's just plain mind boggling in this day of instant replay how they allow some of these calls to stand. The final 2 min . of regulation in todays Detroit game was just the latest incident. Unfortunetly I don't see it improving in the near future.

[MasonJet]

I haven't watched too much of the playoffs since the Rangers lost either but I certainly agree based on what I watched, the refereeing has been terrible in general, especially in game 3 of the Rangers-Sabres series, I will always remember that as one of THE worst officiated games I have seen in any sport period.

And ShadowJet, yes we know you don't like hockey. Congratulations. However, the people on the hockey forum do like hockey and it would be much appreciated if we could discuss hockey without your useless comments that contribute nothing.