Muppet from 213 (no login) from IP address 62.7.12.129
Last night’s match undoubtedly was for me the worst display of refereeing I have seen by any referee in any professional sport. In fact I would go further to say that I think it was probably the worst display in any sport, professional, amateur, or recreational.
I was truly amazed at the level of ineptitude shown by Nigel Boniface last night, who seemed to take a perverse delight in making questionable (to be polite) decisions on the one hand and ignoring straightforward offences, by both teams, on the other. I really must say however that his attitude towards the Steelers I found totally reprehensible, and at the end, after consigning Brad Lauer to the dressing room after 5 minutes of the 3rd period for very obviously demonstrating that he had nearly had his head removed by a high stick, allowing one Bracknell goal to stand when there was at least one and possibly two men in the crease at the time of scoring, he left the ice swearing at and abusing the crowd. An offence I remember Paul Cruse being disciplined earlier in the season.
Mr. Boniface had not done then as after the match he called both Ryan Bach and Mike Blaisdell for Gross Misconduct. A little man, drunk with power, and obviously very aware of the appalling job that he had done on the night.
What can be done? Not much I fear, but I for one will be writing to the league and to our owner and will be happy to publish any replies on this forum. In my book both his ability on the ice and his attitude and demeanour when leaving it and afterwards has brought the game into disrepute and this will be the thrust of my complaint. Lets for God’s sake hope that this is a low point that does not occur again with our team or any other.
Happy New Year everyone and I hope 2002 brings Nigel Boniface absolutely all he deserves!
Mr Muppet - after reading your comments, I replaced 'Nigel Boniface' with 'Andy Carson' and your comments could easily have been from any Panthers fan who witnessed the debacle on 2 December at the HoS. Someone in authority has to acknowledge sooner or later that our referees are just not up to the job. Unfortunately, not one of them stands out as being particularly better than any other, although Kirkham and Rowe have contributed the better refereeing displays I have seen this season. Until Taylor & the ISL bite the bullet and ship in professional referees, our game will be blighted by ineptitude.
The ISL will never bring in professional referee's as they and the clubs owners will never ever pay for them. It's all profit profit and more profit where they are concerned. And even if they did, where would they get a decent standard of referee who is used to the North American style, cos all the ref's that are looked upon as decent (NHL Refs) are way out of the ISL's price structure. Even the fans of the NHL teams grouse about the refs poor performance.
There is only one viable solution to the referee's problem over here and that's to train those that we have more.
As for last night, I'm just happy my £40 - £50 of very hard earned cash stayed put.
I refer you to the text of my original post. The ISL didnt have pro refs from the start when the grass in the ISL field was green & lush, now the grass is brown and hard they arent going to have any are they.
You are absolutely right about your choice of word in "blighted". The standard of refereeing has never been great but I can well beleive your comments about Mr. C although unfortunately I was not present at that particular game. A blight on the sport these standards are and as much as wage capping or rogue owners demean and devalue it. The league (and therefore the owners) in it's present or whatever future form it takes must grasp this, amongst many other thorns, to put the game's house, at this level, well and truely in order. I feel strongly that the fans who pay to watch and therefore to whatever extent fund the game, deserve better.
Last nights game was lost on Faceoffs. I counted 4 Steelers faceoff wins in the first period. No team can afford to lose 80 percent of the faceoffs and expect to have any chance of winning the game.
As for Boniface...the less said the better.
Well done and good luck to Bracknell who took advantage of what was given them. Sacrillotti has them well coached.
if less is said about Boniface and the general standard it will go on in it's cosy little incompetant way. Only by complaining where it might matter will action be taken even if its only a private repremand. I can't beleive that it is in anyones interests to put up with a performance like last night from any official. Oh and just in case anyone thinks I am blaming the ref for the result I am not. I think the outcome would probably have been the same in any case as we were generaly out finnished and Greer stood on his head. Interesting SOG stat though Bach/Mac recieved 26/1 awhile Greer took 41.
Don't get me wrong, I agree totally with your comments regarding Boniface. I think in the last 2 years, i've come out of the arena 3 times feeling cheated by a referees display.......is it just coincidence that Boniface was the Ref on every occassion?
The reason for my "the less said the better" comment, was that I didn't want to get talking about last nights reffing display....i could be here all day typing . I'll be polite and say he was incompetent.
Did you notice on 3 occassions the linesman dropped the puck after blowing the whistle when the Steelers either didn't have a man present or were not ready
Yet
On 2 other occassions when the Bees were not ready the linesman blew for a second time and gave them extra time to make the face off
Maybe this isn't unusual
Maybe I don't always look
Maybe I'm just paranoid
I don't think Bracknell will mind him reffing again.
He is a total joke. After the game there was more trouble down the tunnel that led to the gross misconducts being called.
One thing i have noticed is Ryan Bach's short temper, last night was the 3rd or 4th time i've seen him go crazy. He isn't the best netminder here and the way he behaves on the ice isn't going to make any better.
This guy has played at a consistently high level, including time in the best league in the world.
If you were Ryan, how would you react to some jumped-up power crazed little sh*t upstart like Boniface who can't even be arsed to skate the length of the rink to see if a goal is legal or not?
Personally, I think he (and the rest of the team) showed quite a degree of restraint; Brad Lauer seemed to try and inject some humour into the situation, maybe to try and defuse some of the tension, and the <<<chappie>> in the black gave him a game penalty! I know that's the going rate for making the ref look stupid, but Chief Cheat was doing a good enough job of that himself.
<<<MESSAGE EDITED - KINDLY REFRAIN FROM THE USE OR IMPLIED USE OF ABUSIVE LANGUAGE ON THIS FORUM-ASTERISKS MEAN NOTHING>>>
It's coming to something when the "Bring back Toeman" chants start ringing around the Arena!!! - No offence meant, Nico, keep posting
Steve
This message has been edited by houseofsteel from IP address 213.122.196.5 on Dec 31, 2001 1:20 AM
. I'll be polite and say he was incompetent.