Colorado Avalanche: Henrik Zetterberg Says What we All Think of NHL Refs

The Colorado Avalanche, like all NHL teams, have been the victims of very bad officiating. It’s time for a change.

As Colorado Avalanche fans, we hate to admit anything in Red Wing red can be good or right. However, with the state of the NHL right now, it’s a relief to hear common sense from anywhere — even the Detroit Red Wings captain, Henrik Zetterberg.

The Wings played the Florida Panthers on February 3. The game was tied 2-2 with under 10 seconds to go. In the process of scrambling for the puck in front of the net, Florida forward Jonathan Huberdeau knocked Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek over. He twisted around, saw the puck in front of a splayed Mrazek, and scored. It was the game-winning goal. There were just 7.7 seconds left in the game.

Here’s the play:

We can sit here all day and argue about whether that goal should have counted because of goaltender interference. That’s the point — we can argue about it because it’s not clear-cut.

And here’s where Zetterberg’s words come through:

"“The inconsistency in this league right now, if it’s the refs or it’s the guys in Toronto or if it’s the suspensions or if it’s the fines, it’s hard for us as players to know what rules we are playing under. You see it over and over again.”"

Though it kills me as a longtime Avs fan to praise a Red Wing, Zetterberg’s quote is completely accurate. We’ve all seen it over and over again — every single team, probably even the Chicago Blackhawks, Vegas Golden Knights and Pittsburgh Penguins, aka, the NHL’s golden teams.

For the Colorado Avalanche, we’ve seen penalties that have hurt our players but not been given supplemental discipline:

We’ve seen our players given supplemental discipline for plays other players have gotten away with:

We’ve seen goals allowed against us that should have been called back and goals that should have stood but were disallowed — including the one the NHL admitted was a wrong call.

I remember after the Matt Duchene WAY offsides goal — that stood in a 2013 game against the Nashville Predators when we first started talking about video reviews. Personally, I don’t think video reviews are the problem. Video footage of a play allows you to get a better view of what’s occurring.

The problem with NHL officiating right now is two fold. Officials are going to miss things in such a fast-paced sport because they’re human. The problem is in relying on more humans to arrive at a ruling by consensus. Whether it’s the War Room in Toronto or the Spanish Inquisition of the DoPS, relying on more humans to arrive at a correct verdict is only resulting in inconsistency.

Two, the rules themselves are not clear. As Avs captain Landeskog — among others — once remarked, no one knows what offsides is anymore. Nor goaltender interference.

Colorado Avalanche /

Colorado Avalanche

I’m guessing it’s just as perplexing — and frustrating — for the officials. In this era of digital technology, every nanosecond of their performance on the job can be scrutinized by millions of passionate sports fans. And said fans — myself included — are voicing our displeasure.

I think goaltender interference is the easiest rule to fix. You touch the goalie in the crease, no goal. Back in the day, I saw my favorite player then (Rene Corbet) just step into the crease, and the refs called back an Adam Deadmarsh goal because you weren’t allowed in the crease at all. It was frustrating, but there was no question — he was in the crease, and you’re not allowed in the crease.

Offsides is a lot harder to solve. In theory, it’s simple — the puck must enter the offensive zone before the attacking team. All players must exit the offensive zone and re-enter after the puck.

Here is the actual rule:

"“The position of the player’s skates and not that of his stick shall be the determining factor in all instances in deciding an off-side. A player is off-side when both skates are completely over the leading edge of the blue line involved in the play.A player is on-side when either of his skates are in contact with, or on his own side of the line, at the instant the puck completely crosses the leading edge of the blue line regardless of the position of his stick.”"

However, it gets tricky because even with video replay, you can’t always tell if a skater’s skate was completely over the blueline.

And there’s a touch-up rule that adds to the confusion.

"“However, a player actually controlling the puck who shall cross the line ahead of the puck shall not be considered “off-side,” provided he had possession and control of the puck prior to his skates crossing the blue line.”"

It’s a topic for a whole separate post how to fix the broken offsides rule, calling offsides, and the challenge. However, we need to all admit it’s broken.

I think what would benefit the Colorado Avalanche and all teams is to either completely take out the human aspect — and I’m not sure how that would work — or let it back in.

I remember watching games in the 1990s, and they never felt like the officiating was so bad. The referees tended to call games pretty evenly — each team got about the same amount of penalties. That seemed fair — each team got about the same number of power play chances, and that made any missed calls sit a little easier.

And if the other team was being egregiously aggressive in how they were addressing your stars, you had an enforcer to “remind” him of the rules. It was an imperfect system, but it felt a lot less frustrating than the current NHL officiating. And I definitely prefer the enforcer to the ridiculously unfair Department of Player “Safety.”

Next: Farewell to Legend Jaromir Jagr

Weigh in below, Avs fans — or even non-Avs fans. Let’s figure this out.

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