Let the goalies see the puck

Well I must say, the refs didn't let us down again. What a great non call to end the Canuck Duck series. A total shot to the head with an elbow that flattened the canuck player, no call which resulted in a goal. Oh My God, when will this rediculous effort by the refs come to an end. We have totally screwed up the game and lost sight of what really matters. A little love tap to the gloves and off we go for two or less. In most cases there is no impedence to the player what soever. Now the hit on Hansen that not only impeded the player but probably caused a mild concussion. Give me a break. I say remove the refs from the game completely they have all the power to control the outcome and they do just that. I am sick of it frankly and now with hockey as bad as it is, what the hell do we need CBC for at all. The only show on worth watching was hockey but the league has seen to it that the game is now a total disgrace with lack of repect for good old fashioned play. Stop the stupidity with respect to these new rules and maybe lets go to a five man ref system and maybe then we might see a fair game called.No wonder Luongo was distracted, everyone including him thought there should have been a penalty except the refs were having a sleep hoping for the game to end soon.
Cheers

Cheers

I would like to offer a solution to "was the puck in the net or not": Install a 6in. deep x12 in. wide drop down space running the full width of the net under the ice surface. This space would be covered by plexiglass and have a wide angle camera inside, looking up to record the position of the puck in relation to the goal line. This container with the camera would include the goal line. The ref.could then review the situation on camera if he had to, without going "upstairs.

just watching the sens devils game with the young fella. it's the second period and i'm pointing out not to worry about the first 2 periods, the game won't start until the 3rd period(what a joke ha ha). maybe the powers to be could eliminate the 1st 2 periods and also about 10 players on each side then we could get some flow in the game. i'm starting to watch basketball, its really entertaining when the rough stuff starts.

Is Dany Heatley ok? During the first intermission I noticed one of his pupils were much larger than the other. This is a sign of a concussion. I know he also sufferd a major eye injury, could that just be it?

Don,

I like the idea of the whistle blow to stop clock and button to restart it. You mentioned a situation of clock stoppage or restart happening in a stanley cup finals... maybe game 7 costing the win to the team. I remember back when the rule of being in the crease would disallow goals event thought you had no part in the shot or goal but just being in the crease. You had mentioned that in the season about watching it happen in the stanley cup final. Well if you remember and if I remember correctly, it did happen, Stanley Cup finals. I beleive it was on Hull being in the crease. anyhow, are we predicting this will happened again in the finals??? LOL

Your Fan and beleive you are the best coach out there.

Sylvain Sigouin
Ottawa

Great spot on the clock/whistle issue. However for dropping the puck, human hand is still envolved. I had a quick idea about a pressure sensitive button worn on the thumb of the puck dropper. I realize this may be a stretch but it is the age of technology!
Love the program, been watching for years. Keep up the good work guys.

I would like to know the stats on goals scored when a certain player is in the box...
ie, who causes their team to be scored on for taking a penelty...
Thank you,
Jason

Hey guys, just wondering what you guys thought about the "officiating" so far during these playoffs? Too much ? too little?

And what exactly are the fans shouting at Luongo when in Vancouver? sounds like they're booing him? He deserves MVP without him, Van oculd have been out before the season started.

Forget the refs and the other distractions,enjoy Don the ottawa canadian anthem and some pretty darn good hockey!!!

Its about time that the league has cut down on the "idiocy" of the game. Goons are gone! Hacks are almost gone! We actually get to see some hockey happening. No more interfere this guy and that guy and the last team not to yawn wins. More power plays, more great saves, more goals,that is what the game is about. Sure there going to miss some sometimes, thats hockey. Greatest game on earth!!

As long as there are officials, there will be disputed calls. Blaming officials for making calls is ridiculous. The players know what is legal and illegal. Behind your own blue line, shoot the puck over the glass = delay of game. Simple. Player does it, ref calls it. Simple. DOn't want delay of game? Don't do it. Didn't mean to do it? - Baloney! Have you ever been to a pratice? These guys can hit the crossbar from 200 feet. Whack a player with your stick, not playing the puck = slashing. Simple. The players know it, the refs call it. What's slowing the game down is the action of the PLAYERS, not the REFS. The only complaint that makes any sense at all is the inconsistency from the beginning of the season to now or even within a single game. Those who say "Let 'em play", were never crosschecked across the lower back (where there is next to no protection) or gotten slashed on the arm or back of the leg. Call 'em and be consistant. If the game gets decided because of a penalty call, then so be it. Should how the game is called by refs be determined by the score or the time on the clock? That is certainly the most ridiculous suggestion ever.

JW

The recent changes have ruined the good Canadian game. The crappy hooking and tripping calls. I agree with the stick control penalties. But if we are changing the game for the sake of our Southern neighbours then I would suggest that we change the Game of Baseball as well. It is to slow, lets give a 10 second rule for throwing a pitch, move the bases closer and allow the batter to use an aluminum bat. I do not think they would like those changes so let's tell Bettman to leave hockey alone. Thanks

With all the penalties being called it changes the entertainment value of a wide open hockey game. The referies are dictating the game and this is just wrong! Loose the whistle unless there is a dangerous play or an obvious disadvantage due to the infraction. This business of calling hooks if a guy holds out his stick, or a trip when someone steps on a stick is bad for the game. I even find myself slamming the refs when they call those type on the "bad guys". Lets get some flow back into the game and get away from the "who can call the most penalties game".
PS..Dump the no change on an icing rule, its stupid. Stop trying to re-invent the wheel, lets watch some hockey!

REFREEES
Well here we go again, I wonder how many Playoff series will be decided by horendous refreeing, bad calls, missed calls and the foolish new rules brought in this year. Case in point Anaheim Vs Vancouver. Burows puts a puck over the glas totally unintentional and the game is decided because of it. Then we have the total lopsided officiating, inconsistent calls for both team. Naslund swipes at a puck plants his feet to take a swing and continues to glide while an anaheim play steps up to shoot a puck steps into Naslunds foot already planted an bingo a tripping call. But hey don't call a penalty on Kunitz when he leaves his feet plants and elbow square in Olands face knocks his helmet off, and runs over him. Ok, if ur not going to call that then for gods sake stop with the calls on the little love taps on the gloves where the player is not impeded what so ever. We need to seriously look at these foolish rules. The puck over the boards the new stick on gloves and so on. It is killing the game, five on five is a thing of the past, special teams win the games, and goaltenders are hung out to dry. Goalie interference is also a farse, seems no one really knows when to call it and what really qualifies from game to game and ref to ref. One word "PATHETIC" the game is going to hell in a hand basket, give it back to the players and call the game it was meant to be called, and let them play HOCKEY . We use two refs and the missed calls are worse than they ever have been. I am an avid fan that is loosing faith in the game and I think basketball looks much more inticing these days. Don - Do something for the game before you retire, in fact, I hear they're looking for a few good men in stripes. Hey who knows you could probably find a fancy tie to go with the stripes. And thats my rant for the day. Cheers

Only the University of Calgary would do something so stupid like studying a goalies ability on how to stop a puck off a shot. Are the golf courses in good shape?

This is for the penalty that was in the Van/Ana game in the second period.

If ANA received a Penalty for hooking and Van received a Penalty for diving, then how can the two work together as a final result. If anything it could only be a dive as a end result, but to have a player get called for hooking, and the player that was hooked be called for diving, then it must not have been a hook. But if he really was hooked, then there should be only a hooking penalty but you can't have both, it is like being charged with a crime and the victim being charged with fraud for the same action, when will refs start to be made accountable for the obvious and horrible calls that are made or missed.

Dear Don I have been watching hockey all my life and Im 73 years young . But this year the stick penalties hooking that are called 15 or more a game are killing the game from the fans view, and we are the ones that count.To day I watched the Midget AAA finals,no hooking calls (no rule) best hockey I watched all year. That doesn:t say mutch for the NHL .Enjoy your coments keep it up.Thank you Bobb Cooney

I think that the refs really suck. They should not right away call something when they didn't see it clearly. Hopefully this will change in the near future

Just a quick note to Don Cherry about his comments regarding the defenceman's stick interfering with the goalie's view of the puck. A scientific study out of the University of Calgary found that a goalie's ability to save a shot depended almost entirely on how early the goalie focussed on the puck and stick. If this critical moment of focus was close to one second, 3 of 4 shots were saved. It would seem logical that the fewer things distracting this focus for the goalie, the better (i.e a defenceman's stick). See, your teacher's were right, studying hard in school can make you a better hockey player.

J. Prezio

I have noticed in some of the play-off series, that the puck has been taking some very weird bounces, and it made me think that this may be due to bad ice. If this is the case, it makes me think that the season is just to long and we are seeing play-off games being ruined for the players as well as we fans. I have also seen poor quality officiating, and it makes me wish that if a ref( or linesman, has a bad series, that maybe he should be forced to sit out a game.

My nephew had to miss our family trip to Florida because he was deployed to Afganistan so I took a picture of him in his uniform and had it blown up to life size. We took his wife and 2 small children and cardboard Stephen to Florida. Because of him our group got lots of special treatment everywhere we went which made his family feel he was apart of the trip. We took lots of pictures that made him look really there and e-mailed them to him. We had so many people from all over the world give him their best wishes.Stephen has a bigger than life personality and even though he wasnt there in the flesh he still made the trip memorable for his family and he was as usual bigger than life. We'll all be much happier to get the real Stephen Sweet back safe and sound in Aug.

How often do teams score when they pull their goalie? Are there stats on this?

i want to know why the referes are so bad this year, i have not watch much games in the reg. season but i do watch more in the playoffs. they dont call a game fair. i was watching tonight and the slaching by the devils and then call one against the ottawa. what is that it is trash calls. so what is called one team and not the other team. it really sucks. come on get the right and fair.