Torts: Shut up about refs

Coach John Tortorella said after Monday's practice at the St. Pete Times Forum that he wants all the talk about referees to stop. That includes himself.

It's been a tough few days between the team and the on-ice officials. Torts was fined $10,000 last week for disparaging remarks about the refs after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Thrashers. Players have asked for the standard on penalties to be more consistently applied, and players questioned calls during an 0-3-1 streak.

Torts said he doesn't want to hear it anymore.

"I do not want to hear any more from organizational, players, coaches, trainers, anybody about officials,'' he said. "That isn't what this is about. That's not how you win hockey games. We need to stop that.''

The message seemed to sink in as a couple players begged off when asked about officiating.

More in tomorrow's paper.

Just to clear up one thing about video reviews: The only thing the people in Toronto are reviewing is whether the puck went across the line and time on the clock. Other than that, it's the ref's call. So, as I was told, they never ruled on whether the Rangers' Brendan Shanahan covered the puck in the crease. That is not in the mandate. Nor do they rule on whether someone dislodges a net on purpose. It's all called on the ice.

 

Comments

[Joe]

So much for taking a cue from this story...

[Lisa]

Hockey is still my favorite sport, but the officiating is horrendous. Of course there will be missed calls and mistakes, but what annoys the h*** out of me is when the officials are blatantly obvious.

The official was looking right at Marty in the Devils games when he was tackled and no call.

The Carolina goal: the official was on the blue line and didn't see if the puck was anywhere near the goal let alone in the goal but he called it a goal from the blue line. On review, they couldn't tell if it went in or not, but since they had no evidence to overturn it, the counted it.

I can go on and on and on, and these are decisions whic affect the outcome of the game. I am fed up with the biased officiating and the flat out incompetent, arrogant officiating. Instead of fining a coach, they need to work on fixing the problem. But they won't do that as long as they can try to keep the coaches mouths shut to their incompetent and bias. If more coaches had the guts to complain, maybe something would be done about it, instead of continuing with this BS.

[vic]

But once you come to the realization that the game itself flows at such a speed that even if the ref has eyes like a hawk, he's still gonna be fooled by phantom faults. It's crappy but it's true.
Or better yet, the ref REALIZES he missed a call and figures he OWES one to the team that suffered because of it.
95% of the games finish with an equal amount of calls to either side. Some would say that that very aspect makes it inconsistent but I like to think of it as fairness.
This oxymoronic paradox has made the game the way it is for too long to be swayed by romantic ideas of a perfect reffing system. Can that even be?
I agree that football has a better track-record in this aspect but the NFL benefits from a 1000% larger commercial demographic that FORCED it to adopt new guidelines in reffing. This took almost 10 years; it didn't happen over a day.
The NHL has no such billion-dollar incentive. Trying to force such a transition in hockey today would crap up the game worse than what you're seeing now.
Bigboy said he could live with the mistakes if it meant the end of clutching and grabbing. I totally agree.
I don't care who says the NHL loses credibility because of what they deem as blights on a "professional" game,i.e.,fighting, reffing, it's still the fastest, cleanest, most passionate sport in the world and I'll never stop watching.

[Lisa]

Sorry, but I think if the refs had any integrity or any pride, they would do the job they are paid to do and they would do it fairly. I have seen too many games where the idiots are the ones deciding the games.

The Atlanta game was so poorly officiated I could not believe the calls until I saw who officials were. And for Marty to be tackled when he was not in possession of the puck with the refs watching is just a travesty.

The NFL is professional about it. they make mistakes, everyone makes mistakes. But they come forward and admit to the mistakes and try to correct them.

The NHL makes mistakes, they fine the coaches and they go on to be as biased and unprofessional as they possibly can be. For a ref to refuse to explain a call to a player is just plain ridiculous. The NHL will never become a respected league until they can act like professionals. (And I love hockey, it is my favorite sport, but anyone just tuning in will look at it and not watch when they see how the calls have no consistency)

[vic]

That's right, cat. I love how he's so virtuous when discussing the Moralities and Consequences of griping at the referees but so ready to chew their heads off if they call something he doesn't like. duuuh..hello? Oh, really, coach? We shouldn't yell at the refs from the bench anymore, or question their competence after the game? How come? Cause it'll only get worse? What...
Oh. I see how that could be. The refs have pride just like anybody else. If you make them look bad once, they will remember it always and they will KEEP THEIR EYES ON US, happy to call any crap they see against us whether it happened or not. A four-year old could see that coming, coach!
Mind you, I was beaming when you tore Larry Brooks a new hole. That was great. But that wasn't a ref. What could Brooksie do? Nothing!
There's the difference, eh Tortie?

[David]

I think Torts is being smart by getting his team to focus less on the refs; i think he sees it as a distraction and causing frustration instead of getting a positive attidude in the locker-room. Secondly, at the end of this season the league should change the mandate of reviews to accomodate calls like a puck covered in the crease or a net dislodged intentionally. It would be a better use of replay to make it encompass all areas about a goal.

[grady]

Hmmmm. Good question! Petulant child-coach?

[Alabaster Cat]

I wish to thank Coach Tortorella for his admonishments to the players, coaches, trainers, and other administrational personnel about complaining about the referees. John is the guy who mouthed off and got fined. Some say that his poor relationships with some of the league's officials has much to do with the horrible calls that the Bolts are getting from them.

Now, in this grandiose jester, John demands that the Lightning remain mum about these difficulties. But let us all take note if next time he is frustrated and some reporter sticks a microphone in front of his face. Will we see the petulant child-coach or the diplomat?

[Nan]

Clarification requested! Are you saying that the boys in Toronto don't review a high stick above the crossbar or a deliberate kicking motion?

I agree with Torts that the talk should stop about the refereeing. Everyone knows it's bad so why keep talking about it. Maybe someday down the road, our team will get some calls going their way. Surely it will even out at some point.

[Duane Futch]

The Times is giving us all this minutiae like MacDonald returning--who cares--and Torts saying the obvious when the real story---the pending (non) sale is the biggest Lightning story of the year. The non sale has already cost us a very good goalie and hurt player morale.

[Nils]

Some of the crybabies on these blogs could take a cue from this.