Officials OK with coach’s challenge

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/10/2015 (3695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Getting it right all the time is the obvious and laudable goal, but NHL director of officiating Stephen Walkom has more subtle motivation in play when it comes to the league’s new coach’s challenge for 2015-16.

“The final decision on these calls is left with officials on the ice, and that goes to the integrity of the game,” Walkom said. “Our thought process has not been to make things perfect but rather to have a chance to re-judge a play and then decide if there’s a better call.”

The NHL has instituted the coach’s challenge for two kinds of plays that lead to goals. One is to challenge that a scoring play was offside, and the other is to detect goaltender interference or the subset of that, where a call of interference was originally made that may not have actually taken place.

There have been 11 coach’s challenges this season. Two have been on a claim of offside and the other nine on goaltender interference. Four calls have been overturned.

“So one offside goal in about 100 games so far, and it was one that was so close, well, it couldn’t have been any closer,” Walkom said. “And you wouldn’t want anyone else making that call than a linesman.”

There’s the key for Walkom.

“I think what officials want — that they believe when it comes to officiating a game — is that the technology and the situation room are just tools for referees to referee the game and linesmen to line the game,” he said. “They believe that tool is an asset for the game, one that helps them fix some mistakes that they don’t have to carry forward in games to come.

“I think they’re right, that this step is the right step for the game.”

When the evidence is clear and a call can get fixed — made better, as Walkom prefers — one team’s always not going to like it but it surely has to eliminate many of the grievances and grudges carried forward by a controversial play.

In the Ottawa-Buffalo game Oct. 7, where an apparent Evander Kane goal was ruled offside after a challenge, the right call got made and neither team could claim somebody was out to shaft them or owes them down the line.

They got it right and life moved on.

Walkom said feedback from the NHL’s officials has been positive.

“Years ago, our guys wanted a tablet to see plays on,” he said. “They’ve wanted this for a long time. The guys that officiate the game have been the only people that never get to see the (reviewed) plays.”

Previously, all of that has been left to the Toronto-based situation room.

“So our guys think it’s long overdue but they also understand why the league’s been cautious about going to more video review,” he said. “Now they appreciate the technology that makes it crystal clear and they feel it’s a lot easier to announce a play you’ve seen than one you haven’t seen.”

What the referees and linesmen have been looking at, in case you’re curious, is a monitor that’s hard-wired in the penalty box. Instead of leaving the field of play like the three other major sports that do replay review, NHL officials have the monitor brought to them on the ice in the referees’ crease.

There, they see the all the angles the war room sees, and in ultra-high definition. Then they make their evidence-based decision.

“There was this fear out there that our guys wouldn’t overturn calls, that they’d want to defend their original call instead of making a better call,” Walkom said. “I think the first few plays this season that have been overturned, well, they could have easily tried to defend the call but they made the right call and that’s a good first step for us and it sets a great example for the teams.”

Is there an expanded version for more kinds of coach’s challenges on the horizon?

“Let’s get these two buttoned down before we go into anything else,” Walkom said. “There needs to be a high level of co-operation; if the officials don’t work quickly and diligently, it can slow down the process and the game. And if the situation room doesn’t work quickly and diligently, it can also slow down the process and the game.

“People expect for us to be perfect from the start. Look, it took us 10 years to get kicking the puck right. We believe this is a step in the right direction and as a little more time goes by here, there will be a better comfort level with coaches and players and you’ll see it go more smoothly on ice.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca