2008 Woodie Awards
Intentional Foul: Refs need to swallow whistles in postseason
Pete Lorenz
Sports | 4/24/08
Wednesday night, I sank into a state of depression for two hours after the Washington Capitals' comeback from a 3-1 deficit against the Philadelphia Flyers in the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs fell short. They lost game seven in overtime, 3-2.
However, anyone who watched the first two periods of that game knows that they were a complete joke. The referees blew their whistles every time something looked even remotely fishy. There were an obscene number of penalties, including extensive 5-on-3 opportunities by both teams. Then, when there was finally an actual call to be made, the officials swallowed their whistles and allowed Sami Kapanen to score on an open net after Patrick Thoresen drilled defenseman Shaone Morrisonn into Capitals goalie Cristobal Huet and knocked both of them over. That's not allowed, but the goal counted.
The referee's job is to make sure that a game is played fairly, and game seven was not fair. I'm not saying the Capitals definitely should have won, but the din of whistles going off for two whole periods hurt my ears.
So the refs really screwed things up Wednesday night, and not just for the Caps. Both teams had to adjust for the tight calling in the first two periods, and it made the game painful to watch at first.
This has also happened in the NBA. In game two of the Utah-Houston series, the Jazz benefited from a really soft offensive foul call on the Rockets' Luis Scola. When Scola grazed Utah's Andrei Kirilenko near the perimeter (neither had the ball), Kirilenko flopped onto the hardwood as though Scola flat-out punched him in the face. Kirilenko was awarded with a whistle and an Emmy before Houston's Bobby Jackson nailed a nullified 3-pointer that would have tied the game with less than 1:20 remaining in the game. The Jazz regained possession and momentum and won the game, 90-84.
Now, in this case, the Jazz were probably going to win anyway. They had possession after the three, and the Rockets were dead tired on defense, but the point is that officials need to make better decisions on when to call fouls and when not to.
However, anyone who watched the first two periods of that game knows that they were a complete joke. The referees blew their whistles every time something looked even remotely fishy. There were an obscene number of penalties, including extensive 5-on-3 opportunities by both teams. Then, when there was finally an actual call to be made, the officials swallowed their whistles and allowed Sami Kapanen to score on an open net after Patrick Thoresen drilled defenseman Shaone Morrisonn into Capitals goalie Cristobal Huet and knocked both of them over. That's not allowed, but the goal counted.
The referee's job is to make sure that a game is played fairly, and game seven was not fair. I'm not saying the Capitals definitely should have won, but the din of whistles going off for two whole periods hurt my ears.
So the refs really screwed things up Wednesday night, and not just for the Caps. Both teams had to adjust for the tight calling in the first two periods, and it made the game painful to watch at first.
This has also happened in the NBA. In game two of the Utah-Houston series, the Jazz benefited from a really soft offensive foul call on the Rockets' Luis Scola. When Scola grazed Utah's Andrei Kirilenko near the perimeter (neither had the ball), Kirilenko flopped onto the hardwood as though Scola flat-out punched him in the face. Kirilenko was awarded with a whistle and an Emmy before Houston's Bobby Jackson nailed a nullified 3-pointer that would have tied the game with less than 1:20 remaining in the game. The Jazz regained possession and momentum and won the game, 90-84.
Now, in this case, the Jazz were probably going to win anyway. They had possession after the three, and the Rockets were dead tired on defense, but the point is that officials need to make better decisions on when to call fouls and when not to.
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