Hockey's Worst Year

Seemed like this season would never end. Couldn't even watch the finals. The game is unwatchable. The announcers are too tied to the players. No one knows what a clean hit is. AND the Habs are a farce. Here's a good take/post-mortem on a horrific season for hockey, on the ice and off of the ice: thebarnstormer.com/hockeys-worst-year/

Interesting.

Karlsson's best year.

I enjoyed this past season.

Depends on your perspective. Yeah, there was a ton of off-ice stuff that overshadowed the game at times, and yeah, league discipline and headshots continued to be a prevailing topic.

As a Sens fan though, there were so many great moments, and the season was beyond what most reasonable people expected…hard to call it hockey's worst year.

You say in your post that "the Habs are a farce"…so I'm going to guess that you are a Habs fan and were obviously frustrated and bitter all year. As it should have been.

Not sure what people expect from a game that is played by grown men. Accept it for what it is.

With all due respect to the people who died, I also enjoyed this season.

I will agree that this season was just an absolute head scratcher with regards to the reffing and suspensions. No suspension for the hit on winchester (or penalty), chris neil gets a penalty for getting speared, refs influencing the decision for so many games (many sens games, including game 6 @ home, not to mention game 6 of the cup finals).

I'm hoping the next cba can introduce a coach's challenge....its high time now. And make the refs more accountable. Can't do much in the way of shanahan being more consistent...

Michallica wrote:I will agree that this season was just an absolute head scratcher with regards to the reffing and suspensions. No suspension for the hit on winchester (or penalty), chris neil gets a penalty for getting speared, refs influencing the decision for so many games (many sens games, including game 6 @ home, not to mention game 6 of the cup finals).

I'm hoping the next cba can introduce a coach's challenge....its high time now. And make the refs more accountable. Can't do much in the way of shanahan being more consistent...

I've said it before, and I'll tout it here again. The NFL has a weekly show on the NFL Network, where the head official goes through some controversial calls from the past week, describes the rationale behind why certain calls were made/not made, and then discusses whether the on-field refs got it right. I would LOVE to see the NHL adopt this idea. It wouldn't necessarily change anything, other than perhaps giving fans some satisfaction in knowing that certain calls were right or wrong. It would also publicly expose refs who consistently get things wrong…which is why the refs' union would hate this and do everything to oppose it.

And, hey, it'd be entertaining!

We have "C'mon Ref" or whatever that column is called. Maybe next year Fraser takes his gig on the air.

rileysutherland wrote:Seemed like this season would never end. Couldn't even watch the finals. The game is unwatchable. The announcers are too tied to the players. No one knows what a clean hit is. AND the Habs are a farce. Here's a good take/post-mortem on a horrific season for hockey, on the ice and off of the ice: thebarnstormer.com/hockeys-worst-year/

Welcome to the board.

As a Habs fan, though, you must admit it's great to finally see Gauthier and Martin gone. They seen to be mostly doing the right moves now. I'm still scratching my head about Therrien -- I was scratching it the first time they hired him, too. For the record, I lived in Montreal from '75 to '95. The current team bears no resemblance to those teams of the 70s and 80s and early '90s.

wprager wrote:We have "C'mon Ref" or whatever that column is called. Maybe next year Fraser takes his gig on the air.

Now Fraser is just a media-schmuck...It'd be nice to have some accountability by those employed as referees.

wprager wrote:We have "C'mon Ref" or whatever that column is called. Maybe next year Fraser takes his gig on the hair.

Wow that's how I read your post

Michallica wrote:I will agree that this season was just an absolute head scratcher with regards to the reffing and suspensions. No suspension for the hit on winchester (or penalty), chris neil gets a penalty for getting speared, refs influencing the decision for so many games (many sens games, including game 6 @ home, not to mention game 6 of the cup finals).

I'm hoping the next cba can introduce a coach's challenge....its high time now. And make the refs more accountable. Can't do much in the way of shanahan being more consistent...

Apparently some of the GMs don't want a challenge because of the way that the cameras are set up in each arena. Some are much better than others, putting the owners of the better systems at greater risk of getting more penalties against them in their home games. Of course, that goes both ways (they'd also be able to challenge more confidently, knowing that their video setup will catch whatever infraction they want to challenge), but it still makes them more vulnerable than a team with a terrible setup.

That was the dissent that was reported the last time this issue came up.

spader wrote:

Michallica wrote:I will agree that this season was just an absolute head scratcher with regards to the reffing and suspensions. No suspension for the hit on winchester (or penalty), chris neil gets a penalty for getting speared, refs influencing the decision for so many games (many sens games, including game 6 @ home, not to mention game 6 of the cup finals).

I'm hoping the next cba can introduce a coach's challenge....its high time now. And make the refs more accountable. Can't do much in the way of shanahan being more consistent...

Apparently some of the GMs don't want a challenge because of the way that the cameras are set up in each arena. Some are much better than others, putting the owners of the better systems at greater risk of getting more penalties against them in their home games. Of course, that goes both ways (they'd also be able to challenge more confidently, knowing that their video setup will catch whatever infraction they want to challenge), but it still makes them more vulnerable than a team with a terrible setup.

That was the dissent that was reported the last time this issue came up.

Sense that does not make.