Officiating in okcahl

[Soonerstrength]

Is it just me or have the refs completely lost control of the league already, way more than usual? I play for two teams, one in d-1 and d-2, and thus see a lot of games while waiting between mine.

After this Sunday I feel a though ever since the most recent refs clinic, the officials in our beloved rec league are being far more lenient on dangerous and catalytic penalties, while being overly strict on "abuse of the official" penalties.

For instance, on Sunday myself and a teammate got pretty brutally x-checked multiple times by the same player...he never got a x-checking penalty (that I'm aware of) but we got a combined 8 games of suspension due to our "discussions" with the refs about the no calls.

I don't think its this pair specifically, it seems like a general trend amongst all this year, but just wanted to see if I'm nuts or if others are feeling similarly.

[the_Mont]

I know the ref's job stinks, call a game too loose and people get injured, call it too tight and it's not fun. I think a lot of responsibility has to be placed on the players. There are too many players acting like it's Game 7 out there. They take things too seriously, threaten other players, throw checks, jaw at the refs, etc. It's only a game, and a rec league game at that. Maybe it's the disparity in ages or talent, I don't know. Maybe the league should hand out more suspensions for dangerous play. Until the players take responsibility for how they act, there's little the refs can do on the ice. I think the league needs to get serious about it, then you'd see a change in the officiating.

[Brett]

All I can say is you couldn't pay me enough money to ref in the adult league. Some of the guys playing are first class a-holes.

Agree with the mont - you call it too tight and everyone is pissed. You call it too loose and everyone is pissed. I think the only thing that would solve this would be more game misconducts for the blatantly stupid stuff. When I played in the league way too much stuff went unpunished. Instead of getting a 2 min roughing call throw their ass out of the game. When people start realizing that they're paying their league fees while watching a game on suspension they might think twice about acting stupid.

[OkMoonDawgs]

Well the refs could do things such as penalties , game misconducts , etc but they all seem to be bias toward certain teams and people. It sucks to play a team who has their best friends reffing. The refs look the other way when their buddies do stuff and then try to be hard asses towards the opposing team. This causes a lot of things to get out of control. ( See Tripod player/captain who also works at the rink coming off the bench and tackling someone from behind after the whistle and not having any disciplinary action other than minor penalties)

THen there are refs that are just incompetent and simply just plain suck. I question whether a few are sober half the time.

There should be a player abuse penalty that could be given to the refs ;) ...... I cant even say some of the things Defeo said to us this week. He called me a Fucktard , Called us Pussies countless times. We said cmon man you cant talk to us like that. He said we sucked dick and he was an adult and could talk to us anyway he wanted too.... I was beside myself.... especially since one of our guys got a game suspension just the week before for asking a ref why one of the tripods didnt get booted from a game for throwing punches....

I mean who are you going to talk to ? Donovan ? I have already tried to talk to him about certain teams , players, referee bias and it didnt solve anything. They kind of have our nuts in a vice here. There isn't a whole lot of options if you want to play hockey here. Its either hope you can get on with one of the beer leagues, play in the OKCAHL , or go to Dallas and play on weekends or something.

I guess also some of the refs dont have a complete understanding of the rules either. Hell I dont even know all the rules but I know what icing is and half the refs dont even get that concept to be honest. I know reffing is a tough job as I umpire for baseball. However I am fair and impartial. I know I have missed calls before but thats called human error. Human error doesnt happen every time I ref a certain team.

[Soonerstrength]

I know the ref's job stinks, call a game too loose and people get injured, call it too tight and it's not fun. I think a lot of responsibility has to be placed on the players. There are too many players acting like it's Game 7 out there. They take things too seriously, threaten other players, throw checks, jaw at the refs, etc. It's only a game, and a rec league game at that. Maybe it's the disparity in ages or talent, I don't know. Maybe the league should hand out more suspensions for dangerous play. Until the players take responsibility for how they act, there's little the refs can do on the ice. I think the league needs to get serious about it, then you'd see a change in the officiating.

I agree, and I'm not meaning to rag on them outright, I just feel like I've seen more suspensions and majors for unsportsmanlike than I have for dangerous plays. Usually the unsportsmanlike stems from a dangerous play. I also realize there's not much we can do about it, but I was more looking to see if I was just being whiney this year or if others felt similarly.

Ps-defeo is kind of like hazing for okcahl, just survive him for a few seasons and he'll find a new target.

[RobOKC]

How many times have we seen the "suspension" email come out, see a name of a player and then show up to our game only to find them playing.

It is really sad that they have us by the "nuts" as MoonDawg said. No real options for those of us who just want to play and enjoy the game. I wish every league player participated on this board and that we could organize. I think if we sent a message to the rinks by closing our pocketbooks, things might improve. (I know wishful thinking).

[OkMoonDawgs]

Yeah but if we close our pocketbooks.... We hurt ourselves just as much as we hurt them , maybe more if you really love hockey. So yeah they def got us by the nuts!

[schooney]

For someone that is mostly on the outside looking in (reading the emails from the rink) whenI see all those suspensions for "abuse of the refs" always makes me wonder if the rinks might think there is a problem with the refs and not the players. Either the rink doesn't care or they just think that everything is fine with the refs. The league fees are WAY to much for the stuff that you have to put up with from the refs. If you call the ref a name you get 2 minutes in the box, they call you a name and you have smile and go on. The okcahl is so close to being a joke, oh wait it is.