Having covered close to 10 Estevan Apex Bruins midget AA games this season, I've noticed a disturbing trend.
Almost every game seems to have a constant parade to the penalty box. Many of the penalties, of course, are legitimate.
But too often, it seems we end up witnessing a contest to see how fast the even-up call comes, how long the game can go without 5-on-5, how long it takes to fill up the scoreboard.
I write this having never been a referee or a linesman and having an appreciation for what they do. This is not meant to be a ref-bashing column.
This is about re-evaluating the game situations we are putting our minor hockey players in, and the kind of entertainment we're serving up for the fans who take in the games.
How can we expect to advance players up the ladder on a consistent basis when all they play at times is special teams and 4-on-4 minutes, because of the way the game is being called?
You know it's bad when you give up even trying to figure out how many seconds are left of 3-on-3, then how many of 4-on-3, 5-on-3, 4-on-4, 4-on-3.
I'm all for the system-wide crackdown on hits to the head. That is something we need to get out of minor hockey, and it can be tough for a ref to get a clear shot of the point of contact, depending on angles and distance from the hit.
So I don't mind the odd erroneous call for hitting to the head. It can hurt the team and it's frustrating for the coaches, but it's better than missing a bunch of head shots.
But this idea that when you send someone to the box, you immediately start watching the other team for an excuse to even it up, is garbage.
Some of the chintzy make-up calls in midget AA games this season have been painful. Sure, it goes both ways, but it robs the game of any kind of flow or entertainment.
It's almost getting to the point where kids don't need to worry about killing penalties because they know the other team's getting one before they even set up their power play.
The NHL had similar problems right after the lockout and they've ironed it out. This is a small sample size, so let's hope it's something that officials in the Â鶹´«Ã½AV Saskatchewan Minor Hockey League can work on as well.
Josh Lewis can be reached by phone at 634-2654, by e-mail at [email protected], on Twitter at twitter.com/joshlewis306 or on his Bruins blog, newly relocated to estevanmercury.ca/bruinsbanter. Don't worry if you find him in a trance. Yes, those words he's mumbling repeatedly are "Ricky Ray."
