I missed this one

I know it has been a while since I blogged, and I aplogize.  I promised a post about corrupt refereeing, and then fell through - sorry about that.

But I have to admit that I missed another of the reasons that NHL referees manage games  - Pettiness.  See
here and here.  I should have seen it before.

Do you believe Alex Burrows?  Do you believe that a professional referee would stake his reputation on revenge calls?  Do you believe that referees are emotional people who are largely unsupervised and who have say in the output of a hockey game?

I would answer "Yes", "Yes", and "Yes" to those questions.  The reason I would answer "Yes" to all those questions is simple - I have too much anecdotal and circumstantial evidence to not believe it.  Alex Burrows is just adding some hearsay evidence to the pile.  Pile of what?  Basically, it passes the Cheech and Chong "Dogsh!t" test (unofficial transcript here), which goes like this:

1. Does it feel like Dogsh!t? - His statements feel right.  They match what this blog has been stating - the referees aren't as professional as they want us to believe.
   
2. Does it smell like Dogsh!t? - I've smelled something like this before.  It smells like Tim Donahey.
   
3. Does it taste like Dogsh!t? - I've watched too many games and come from the game with a bad taste in my mouth.  Now I know what that taste was.  (and NO, it wasn't something that you stuck in there, you perv.)  It was a game that was artificially influenced by referees.
   

The problem is that the NHL is stepping in the pile of Dogsh!t by ignoring the it.  They appoint former referees and players to handle the disciplinary duties of the NHL, which only servers to maintain the status quo.  The former players and referees are so used to the smell of the Dogsh!t that they don't notice it anymore, are too ignorant to look down to see it and are too squeamish to taste it.  They're actually the dogs who "made" the Dogsh!t.

This won't change until somebody in the upper reaches of NHL Managaement sees the Diciplinary and Refereeing systems for what they are - a big steaming pile of Dogsh!T.

* I couldn't find an audio link to the Cheech and Chong Dogsh!t skit, but maybe you can if you Google it.
** I didn't really mean for the Dogsh!t metaphor to take over the post, but it had a life of its own and kept working the more I used it.