The following is an excerpt from Tres' Three Pointers. For the whole post, click here*
Are refs bad in the playoffs? Or are they bad all the time?
Last night, in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals, the referees blatantly missed a tripping call on Bruins’ player Noel Acciari by Blues’ player Tyler Bozak. This missed call ended up resulting in a Blues’ goal in the exact same sequence. The Blues went on to win 2-1 so obviously Bruins’ fans are livid. I’m not saying that the Bruins would have won if they got that call. The Blues were the better team that game and Jordan Binnington made 38 saves to limit the Bruins to only one goal. So both of these factors can be true at the same time.
My issue is that this is just another blatant call that the NHL referees have missed in these playoffs. A different call with ramifications similar to this was the five minute major assessed to Cody Eakin of the Golden Knights in Game 7 of the First Round against San Jose.
Because of this Major, the Sharks went on to score four unanswered goals and kill any momentum the Golden Knights had. Should the Knight not have given up 4 goals in a 5 minute sequence? Yes. But I also know that the call was the wrong call and that the Knights shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place.
Another missed call was in the second round (also in favor of the Sharks) when the Sharks clearly scored off of a clear hand pass by Erik Karlsson. The Blues still went on to win the series, but that is no excuse for the refs missing another major call.
The NHL isn't the only one with this problem either unfortunately. In Game 3 of the NBA Finals, the referees missed two blatant goal tends that shifted momentum in the favor of the Raptors. It wasn’t the reason they won, but it also didn’t help the already short-handed Warriors.
In the NFC Title game between the Rams and the Saints, the referees missed a blatant head-to-head hit and pass interference call in the exact same play.
So there have been massive screw ups in the biggest moments by officials in three of the biggest sports in America and I just can’t believe that this happens. This leads me to a few questions I have about this whole debacle.
Do referees miss this many calls all the time in the regular season? Do we just not care because it’s the regular season and there are very little stakes compared to in the playoffs? Do we only care now because we are watching every second of these games? Or are they just choking in big moments like athletes sometimes do? Finally, is there a solution to this problem?
The NFL, NHL, and NBA have all tried to address the issue surrounding missed calls already by making their referees full time so clearly the issue isn’t that they can’t focus fully on this because it is their job to be the best since they can commit full-time to their profession. Maybe the problem is something that we have to accept and admit going forward. Referees, just like players, are imperfect and they will all inevitably make mistakes at one point or another; they will even make them in huge moments. We just have to hope and pray that it isn't against out favorite team. I think it is as simple as the fact that referees just choke sometimes and miss a call because the pressure gets to them like it gets to players – especially inexperienced ones.
I think the best solution, despite its unpopularity, is just to embrace more replay. Maybe you can make it so that extra replay only comes up in the playoffs so that way regular season games get longer, but once the playoffs start I don’t think many fans care how long a game takes as long as its good and the outcome is fair (in terms of refereeing, fairness in terms of talent it entirely different).
These sports should also give coaches the ability to challenge any play on the field once per game. It can be a trip, a pass interference, a hold, a loose ball foul, or even an out of bounds ruling. Just give the coaches a chance to challenge something and give the refs a chance to fix a game changing mistake. I don’t think that’s too hard to ask for.
Or we can just embrace Jay Glazer’s idea and have all official be combat veterans. They perform better in the highest pressure situations than anyone else would and no coach could chew them out because they served out country. Problem solved!
*Cover image found via Kansas City Star