SAME HOCKEY RULES EVERYWHERE

[doogster]

doogster said:

I haven't been by the board in a while, sorry. But, I'm back!

This is an interesting thread and we have debated it many times over at HockeyRefs.com's Board.

There are 63 members of the IIHF and 61 of them play by the same rules. Only Canada and the U.S. have their own rulebooks.

In recent years there has been a big push to make the various rulebooks more consistent, but there are still some big differences - ranging from penalty options to off-side rules to little things like if the whistle is blown when the puck hits the goalie's helmet.

I also forgot to mention that both Hockey Canada and USA Hockey recommend that all new rinks be built to international standards of 200 feet long by 100 feet wide.

[Brimsek39]

US college hockey uses no touch iceing.

I know some teams use international size rinks, but not all. I don't know what the guidelines are for rink sizes in college hockey in the US.

[Graham]

NyQuil said:

One thing I'll say about the NHL refs is that in general they are quite good at knowing when to wave off icing.

Yeah, but when you are a full-time paid professional you should be better...

Out of curiosity, how many European countries have any full-time (or even paid!) officials?

In the UK, they get expenses and not much more.

Graham.

[doogster]

Brimsek39 said:

US college hockey uses no touch iceing.

I know some teams use international size rinks, but not all. I don't know what the guidelines are for rink sizes in college hockey in the US.

It's kind of confusing actually.

In the U.S., you have USA Hockey and they have two rulebooks. One for youth, women's, and adult men's hockey and the other for Junior A, B, and C hockey. The junior rulebook is completely different and has lots of differences that a high-level of hockey would need from recreational hockey.

Then there's the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). That group governs all high school sports and all high school hockey uses their rulebook which is considerably different than USA Hockey.

Last, but not least, is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The NCAA governs the college and university sports - including hockey. The NFHS and NCAA rulebooks are much closer together and the two organizations share the same office complex down in Indiana.

All four rulebooks have different off-side rules, some have touch icing, some don't. It's very confusing, especially for officials who have to work under four rulebooks.

Additionally, each professional league has its own rulebook - though most are based on the NHL - and many officials outside the NHL work at least three to four rulebooks ranging from youth to professional.

[Brimsek39]

As you say -- confusing. I don't envy the officials.

[doogster]

Graham said:

Yeah, but when you are a full-time paid professional you should be better...

Out of curiosity, how many European countries have any full-time (or even paid!) officials?

In the UK, they get expenses and not much more.

Graham.

To my knowledge Switzerland is the only country with full-time "professional" officials. They have three full-time referees. I believe Germany has one or two, but I don't think they are as "full-time" as Switzerland.

Pay for officials really depends on the league. Some of the European leagues pay really well, while others such as Belgium and the Netherlands don't.

If I remember correctly, British officials don't get paid bad and it's somewhere around the UHL-ECHL level once you do the Pound to Dollar exchange, etc.

In North America, the NHL officials are pretty much the only true full-time professional officials. Most of the other officials in pro leagues have other jobs, though the CHL and ECHL do have a few officials that they call full-time and they put them in an apartment for the season and cover all their expenses.

In the NHL, a linesman starts out at about $70,000 a season and a referee around $90,000. The top veteran officials are making anywhere from $125-200,000 or more. You are paid in the currency of the country you live in, so many Canadian NHL officials move to the U.S. so they get paid in U.S. dollars. Additionally, they get a bonus for every playoff round worked and all their expenses are covered.

[doogster]

Brimsek39 said:

As you say -- confusing. I don't envy the officials.

The vast majority of hockey fans don't realize how difficult it is to become a successful official at the highest levels.

There are roughly 63,000 amateur officials in the world and less than 90 NHL officials. The competition to make it to the top is tough and many don't make it.

A few years ago a Canadian university did a study and discovered that a NHL referee skates something like eight miles forward per game. Remember, officials don't get breaks like players and they have to be able to skate as fast or faster than the players. It's not an easy job and all the new camera angles don't make their job any easier, as a referee you have to make a decision in a spilt second, it's easier for someone to knock your call when they look at replays for one or two minutes.

Terry Gregson - who retired from the NHL as a referee at the end of the 2003-2004 season - always said, "You're the last person thought of, but the first one criticized."

[Brimsek39]

If I'm watching hockey (live or tv) and start to complain about officiating my wife not so gently reminds me that I probably couldn't do what they do. It's a dose of reality.

[Robert]

doogster said:

To my knowledge Switzerland is the only country with full-time "professional" officials. They have three full-time referees. I believe Germany has one or two, but I don't think they are as "full-time" as Switzerland.

That's right, the lone german professional referee isn't working fulltime.

The problem, especially in germany are the most obvious things. Icing, offside, faceoffs and videojudging.

I think two years ago there was a test made about the referees knowledge of the rules. Two out of 15 ended up with a good performance, but 13 didn't. And the professional was among them. His name is Petr Chvatal, a native Czech. He was named professional to get a work permit in Germany. In the summer he works as a waiter and as a tennis coach.

Robert

[doogster]

It's not easy knowing EVERY RULE and how to apply them.

The IIHF rulebook has some 125 pages and 271 rules and sub-rules. That's a lot of stuff to memorize and apply in a spilt-second.

[Robert]

I know that. The best referee is the one you actually don't see very much during the game. It's often about the easiest decisions that upset the fans.

I was lucky enough to see a hockey match at the Worldchampionships from the 3rd row right behind the boards. The referee gave directives to the players during the game like "mind your hands". It was visibly clear that there was an atmophere of respect between all aprticipants of the game.

Robert

[NyQuil]

>>It's not easy knowing EVERY RULE and how to apply them.

>>The IIHF rulebook has some 125 pages and 271 rules and sub-rules. That's a lot of stuff to memorize and apply in a spilt-second.

What's funny is that probably 150 of them aren't used with any kind of regularity.

For example, I recall Robert Svehla when he was with the Leafs, picking up a stick that was dropped, and preparing to hand it to his defence partner.

At which point, the puck arrived, and Robert (obvious brain fart) decided to stickhandle the puck between the two sticks which he had, one in each hand.

Needless to say, the ref called a "playing with 2 sticks" penalty, which the announcer said you don't see more than once a decade

[Graham]

Robert said:

The best referee is the one you actually don't see very much during the game.

I completely agree. Unfortunately, I know of 2 or 3 referees with fairly huge egos and who enjoy being on show just a little too much. Not surprisingly, these are the refs that have the hardest style to predict...

Graham.

[DanCan]

doogster said:

I also forgot to mention that both Hockey Canada and USA Hockey recommend that all new rinks be built to international standards of 200 feet long by 100 feet wide.

doogster, just one question for now. The IIHF rink size standard has been changed a number of times throughout history. Do you known when the IIHF decided the modern standard of 200 x 100, and for what reasons (was it simply that 200 x 100 is nice arithmethics?)

Btw, I'm very happy that you're among us.

[hockeynomad]

DanCan said:

I'm not sure about this one. Europe and North America has different traditions which may not so easily be levelled.

I do believe however that the NHL needs bigger rinks. During the last decades, the players have become faster and heavier (although not much taller), and this has increased the frequency of injuries. I do not know much about physics, but I do know that force = mass x speed. So increase the size of the rinks to make more room for the players; this could also raise the technical level of the game.

Changing rink size has been too major a change for NHL to absorb. I agree that rink size be somewhere between, but don't see it in NHL. They had opportunity several years ago to implement when very many cities were building new arenas, but that opportunity is long gone. Also to take out two three rows of seats means lost revenue.

NHL has always taken a conservative approach to change so don't even think about this change, too bad.
Other small rule changes will happen, no touch icing will go, though as fan I like the race for puck. Always keep defending team on toes, but dangerous for players.