Game #7, away vs Husky-1
Kinda late to reporting about this game and it's not because it wasn't eventful, because it was, believe me. Just been very busy at work, even my lunch time, when I do my writing, has been taken by one thing or another.
Anyway, that team was a team very much within our reach but we started the game very poorly, as we've had a tendency to do quite a bit lately. I've come to realize that since Andrew isn't skating daily as he used to do last year, he can start his gamesa bit cold and he warms up as he get more and more into it. Sadly, right off the bat Alex Fa attempted one of his cross ice passes that I will need him to stop doing and it got cut in the middle. The other team's forward skated only a couple feet inside our defensive zone and fired a decent chest level shot that Andrew wasn't ready for. Can't explain it any other way. Even though he argued to his mother over dinner after the game that it was a top corner shot, it was not. It was the kind of shot he usually stops 95-98% of the time, but that one went it. After only 16 seconds of play, we were down 0-1.
It didn't really get any better in the first period and after one, we had dug ourselves a hole, down 1-4. Despite getting back on track in the second period, we would never recover. It was 2-4 after two, the the crap from the crappy referee happened.
Yup, me, the former referee, had to deal with a bad one. I'd say the first period was ok. Got a questionable call on a goal that I thought Andrew had been pushed back with his skate pushing back the net out of place before the puck got in but the ref explained that he and his two linesmen thought the goal moved after the puck had gone in. Couldn't really argue. Then there was a penalty shot called against us, but again, I thought it was a fair call since our defenseman was way behind a guy on a breakaway and he tripped him. But more and more bizarre calls started happening in the second period.
Then early in the 3rd period, the ref got arrogant with one of our players. Chris had pushed an opponent onto the back of our net and when the referee whistled and Chris started skating toward the penalty box then, ref felt the need to not only call his number and make the roughing signal, he added something toward our player. Couldn't hear what the ref said but it seemed enough that Chris, who's usually quiet, made a quick turn toward the ref and had to be guided toward the penalty box by the linesman. I told the ref he didn't need to do that and he yelled he was only talking to the player.
Just a few seconds later, a VERY questionable slashing penalty was called against us that was going to put us with a two man disadvantage. I got closer to the board as the referee went to give the call to the scorekeeper. I put my elbows on the board as one of my players said something toward the ref like "stop putting on a show". A couple seconds passed and it then happened pretty quickly. The ref pointed at me, then to the corner of the rink and said something as simple as "I heard you, you're out, get out!". I immediately screamed back that I had not said anything, not one single word! He wouldn't hear a thing and I went off to the stands on the other side of the ice. On my mind the whole time was the certainty that I'd be suspended for a game. Suspended for a game because of a freaking idiot.
The guys ended up killing that 3 on 5 but they scored a couple more before that game was over.
Final Score:
Commandeurs-1: 2
Husky-1: 6
I wouldn't want to see myself as THAT important to a bunch of 15-17 year olds but me being tossed out certainly didn't help keep us on track in the 3rd period. I was pretty pissed off in the stands but I refrained from yelling anything toward the ref since I knew it couldn't really help my case in any way and probably could mean more trouble.
I walked toward our locker room once the game was over and seeing the door to the officials locker room half open, I took a chance to walk to them and see if they could tell me what I had said that was the reason behind my ejection. I was very calm approaching them and as soon as I asked the question, the first words of the ref in charge were "don't worry, I didn't call anything on you, no penalty, you won't be suspended". He then added he had "bought peace", whatever that means, by ejecting me.
He actually never answered my question about what I said because he had not heard anything questionable but he had put on a show of tossing me out. I didn't say anything at the time but on Monday morning wrote a long email to our representative at the league as a formal complaint against that referee. Who knows what it'll serve but I felt I had to say something. If a coach had acted badly against a referee, for sure he'd get called a possibly would be suspended but a referee can't act that way and not be reprimanded.
Back to the game result, it frustrated me because it was once again one of those team we could beat, or should I say, we had to beat. There will be some much tougher games in the next 6 weeks...
We got outshot 41-35 in the game but the third period was especially for us. We only put 4 shots on goal in that 3rd period.
Pratice session this evening and we'll try to work some offensive zone drils to try and get the kids to shoot on goal...
Couple games coming up for us this weekend. First tomorrow against 13th place Éclaireurs-3, then a our tough stretch of games will start on Sunday with an away game at 4th place Rapides-2.
The interesting thing is that it's a pretty tight league this season. Some teams seem stronger and able to win big but nobody has really gotten away from the pack. Even in 8th place right now, with two games on hand, we are still within striking distance of 1st place. That is, if we win both games we have on hand, not a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination.
One thing that is sure helping us is that we've yet to lose a fairplay point this season. We would have lost our points in our last game had I been actually ejected from the game but as it was, we had 8 minor penalties called against us and a penalty shot. Don't know if they add minutes for a penalty shot but assuming it counts as 2 minutes, that's 18 minutes of penalties in the game and as long as we don't have more than 20, we keep our fairply point.
Attached are the standings after 6 weeks of activity.
FM