WIS Productions Presents ... The Effingwoods Hockey Almanac

[Chuck Murray]

Re: WIS Productions Presents ... The Effingwoods Hockey Almanac

So with two guys with deep Boston College ties like "The Chancellor" (Shea) and "The Champ" (Hughes) part of the active HEA on-ice officiating rotation, one might wonder who is in charge of HEA on-ice officials and officiating assignments?



Stay tuned for the next installment in what almost feels like "Hockey East - Deep State Operatives".

[Chuck Murray]

Re: WIS Productions Presents ... The Effingwoods Hockey Almanac

Couple of points of interest regarding Hockey East officials' assignments last evening …

* Kevin "The Chancellor" Shea assigned to Merrimack for the Warriors' 3-2 victory over the Friars;
* Marty Hughes (name sound familiar?) officiated the 6-1 UConn victory over BU, a night after Chancellor Shea had officiated the first game of the Huskies' two-game sweep of the Terriers

Again, to be thrown in casually under the "For What It's Worth" category … UConn Men's Hockey Head Coach Mike "Luce Canaan" Cavanaugh was an assistant at Boston College for Jerry York from 1995-2013. Marty Hughes (see links below) was a 4 year player at BC who played his entire career under Luce at The Heights, and is now a Hockey East on-ice official. And Luce's time at The Heights overlapped for almost a decade with that of another HEA on-ice official, Chancellor Shea of Boston College.

http://hockeyphotography.photoshelte...0005N20DK8lbsI

https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/....php?pid=35508

https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/....php?pid=48539

https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/bcnews/cam...president.html

I know, I know … just weird coincidences, right? Nothing to see here, move along, pay no attention …

… but there's at least one more piece of the puzzle to be turned over. I'll get to that sometime this week.

[Chuck Murray]

Re: WIS Productions Presents ... The Effingwoods Hockey Almanac

Of course, guess who one of the referees for tonight’s BU at UConn game is?

I see … Shea and Gravallese, the Chancellor and the Paperhanger. Talk about an odd couple ...

[chickod]

Re: WIS Productions Presents ... The Effingwoods Hockey Almanac

Of course, guess who one of the referees for tonight’s BU at UConn game is?

[e.cat]

Looks to me like HEA's Boston-centric "old boys network". Wonder what the new commish thinks?

Maybe Huddleston or Umile are up for reffing a few games, as long as they're not UNH games?

I hate to be the one that blames the refs for a loss. Losing to BU on questionable call/s doesn't help the all time series numbers with BU though. BU owns UNH like UNH owns UVM over the years!

[Chuck Murray]

Re: WIS Productions Presents ... The Effingwoods Hockey Almanac

Two minutes for too many refs on the ice;-)

Looks to me like HEA's Boston-centric "old boys network". Wonder what the new commish thinks?

Maybe Huddleston or Umile are up for reffing a few games, as long as they're not UNH games?

[HockeyRef]

Re: WIS Productions Presents ... The Effingwoods Hockey Almanac

Wondering what games Shea will be assigned to this weekend ...

Put him on the BC v NU game.... Oh, wait...

[e.cat]

Wondering what games Shea will be assigned to this weekend ...

Two minutes for too many refs on the ice;-)

[Chuck Murray]

Re: WIS Productions Presents ... The Effingwoods Hockey Almanac

"All politics is local." Tip O'Neill circa 1980

Wondering what games Shea will be assigned to this weekend ...

[e.cat]

Pop quiz answers:

(1) Which Hockey East referee is also well-known as an Everett (MA) police officer? Benedetto
(2) Which Hockey East referee had a cameo once on This Old House? Gravallese

Moral of the story taken from the quiz (if any)? Being a HEA on-ice official is probably a great side hustle, and helps these guys supplement their income, all the while doing something they all probably really enjoy doing (and for the most part, they do good work that keeps them in those jobs). But it's clearly not paying anyone enough to be a full-time gig, unless you can string in a few ECAC and/or AHL games to round things out - to say nothing of the seasonal nature of the employment.

Now ... back to where we left off, which was with the BU blogger's stray observation in his circa 2014 review of HEA officials, in which he commented at length about a certain Kevin Shea ...

https://baystateroadsports.blogspot....season-in.html

Another interesting stat about Kevin Shea is that among his 27 games that he officiated in Hockey East last year, he officiated approximately 0 BC games. Now this may be because he has a documented bias for or against BC(I'm going to go out on a limb and say it is for if this is the case) so good for Hockey East for not assigning him to BC games but they still benefit by not having the worst ref in the league do their games.

So that didn't go any further with the blogger, at least not that he commented on in his blog. But it's an interesting observation that at least deserved some further checking into, so the folks at TEHA set about doing that checking. To recap one of the things we'd stumbled into earlier … Shea was placed him on a Beanpot officiating crew circa 2003, when his full-time job apparently was as "chief spokesman for the Boston Red Sox". This mention, and details of an in-game injury he suffered, appear at the bottom of this long-ago ESPN article:

https://www.espn.com/ncaa/news/2003/0203/1503576.html

TEHA sources were able to determine that Shea left the Sox a year later, sometime in 2004. The next couple of years, Shea went to work for the Archdiocese of Boston as communications director for Cardinal O'Malley, during a fairly turbulent time with the Church, in the aftermath of the various sexual abuse scandals that rocked the Archdiocese at the turn of the century. Two years later, no doubt having experienced a demanding and challenging time working for the Archdiocese, it appears Shea took his career in a different direction, and into the world of academia, where over the next decade-plus, he would advance to the heights (spoiler alert) of overall second-in-command at a most prestigious local university. As a Holy Cross graduate, it probably shouldn't have come as a big surprise that his route into academia followed a Jesuit path, but after starting out as an Executive Assistant in the President's office …

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-shea-95a25811/

… ten years later, Shea would be appointed as Vice President and Executive Assistant to the President, Fr. William Leahy S.J.

https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/bcnews/cam...president.html

https://services.bc.edu/publicdirect...r=BC+Community

At Boston College

As in, the second-in-command at a prominent HEA member institution is an on-ice HEA official.

Bet you never saw that coming. I know for sure I didn't.

So TEHA at WIS came upon this information before Saturday night's UNH @ BU rematch, in which Shea was the lead official for a second straight night with the home-and-home series, working with two entirely separate officiating crews. Reach your own conclusions about how that game was called. I made some comments dotted in and around the game thread that evening, and in a game where UNH had their most dangerous forward DQ'ed relatively early in the game - for a second straight night BTW - which led to a BU equalizing goal, followed by a would-be UNH go-ahead goal that was chalked off, and concluding with BU getting a go-ahead goal late in the second period, followed by (predictable?) whistle-swallowing in the 3rd period that had UNH head coach Mike Souza blowing a gasket at least once … it just had a *funky* feel about it.

Again, remember, UNH and BU entered the weekend even in the standings, with BU having been the "victims" of the double OT questionable call to lose in the Beanpot Finals. I will concede, as far as "motives", I'm not sure anything we've come up with here so far is a smoking gun that gets us beyond "conspiracy theory" territory. It's one of the reasons I waited to post this until today. Was HEA looking to "protect its gate" at the HE Tourney next month by helping BU out a bit … did the way BU lost the previous Monday play a role in things? It seems weird that the league might view a "BC guy" as someone to smooth things over with BU here … but then again, why does HEA keep the aforementioned "BC guy" in its mix of available on-ice officials, when it might be more prudent from a league standpoint to avoid even the slightest perception of putting their thumbs on the scale???



So, there it is. Many thanks to our source(s) for the lead. If nothing else, a moment of transparency.

"All politics is local." Tip O'Neill circa 1980

[Chuck Murray]

Re: WIS Productions Presents ... The Effingwoods Hockey Almanac

Pop quiz answers:

(1) Which Hockey East referee is also well-known as an Everett (MA) police officer? Benedetto
(2) Which Hockey East referee had a cameo once on This Old House? Gravallese

Moral of the story taken from the quiz (if any)? Being a HEA on-ice official is probably a great side hustle, and helps these guys supplement their income, all the while doing something they all probably really enjoy doing (and for the most part, they do good work that keeps them in those jobs). But it's clearly not paying anyone enough to be a full-time gig, unless you can string in a few ECAC and/or AHL games to round things out - to say nothing of the seasonal nature of the employment.

Now ... back to where we left off, which was with the BU blogger's stray observation in his circa 2014 review of HEA officials, in which he commented at length about a certain Kevin Shea ...

https://baystateroadsports.blogspot....season-in.html

Another interesting stat about Kevin Shea is that among his 27 games that he officiated in Hockey East last year, he officiated approximately 0 BC games. Now this may be because he has a documented bias for or against BC(I'm going to go out on a limb and say it is for if this is the case) so good for Hockey East for not assigning him to BC games but they still benefit by not having the worst ref in the league do their games.

So that didn't go any further with the blogger, at least not that he commented on in his blog. But it's an interesting observation that at least deserved some further checking into, so the folks at TEHA set about doing that checking. To recap one of the things we'd stumbled into earlier … Shea was placed him on a Beanpot officiating crew circa 2003, when his full-time job apparently was as "chief spokesman for the Boston Red Sox". This mention, and details of an in-game injury he suffered, appear at the bottom of this long-ago ESPN article:

https://www.espn.com/ncaa/news/2003/0203/1503576.html

TEHA sources were able to determine that Shea left the Sox a year later, sometime in 2004. The next couple of years, Shea went to work for the Archdiocese of Boston as communications director for Cardinal O'Malley, during a fairly turbulent time with the Church, in the aftermath of the various sexual abuse scandals that rocked the Archdiocese at the turn of the century. Two years later, no doubt having experienced a demanding and challenging time working for the Archdiocese, it appears Shea took his career in a different direction, and into the world of academia, where over the next decade-plus, he would advance to the heights (spoiler alert) of overall second-in-command at a most prestigious local university. As a Holy Cross graduate, it probably shouldn't have come as a big surprise that his route into academia followed a Jesuit path, but after starting out as an Executive Assistant in the President's office …

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-shea-95a25811/

… ten years later, Shea would be appointed as Vice President and Executive Assistant to the President, Fr. William Leahy S.J.

https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/bcnews/cam...president.html

https://services.bc.edu/publicdirect...r=BC+Community

At Boston College

As in, the second-in-command at a prominent HEA member institution is an on-ice HEA official.

Bet you never saw that coming. I know for sure I didn't.

So TEHA at WIS came upon this information before Saturday night's UNH @ BU rematch, in which Shea was the lead official for a second straight night with the home-and-home series, working with two entirely separate officiating crews. Reach your own conclusions about how that game was called. I made some comments dotted in and around the game thread that evening, and in a game where UNH had their most dangerous forward DQ'ed relatively early in the game - for a second straight night BTW - which led to a BU equalizing goal, followed by a would-be UNH go-ahead goal that was chalked off, and concluding with BU getting a go-ahead goal late in the second period, followed by (predictable?) whistle-swallowing in the 3rd period that had UNH head coach Mike Souza blowing a gasket at least once … it just had a *funky* feel about it.

Again, remember, UNH and BU entered the weekend even in the standings, with BU having been the "victims" of the double OT questionable call to lose in the Beanpot Finals. I will concede, as far as "motives", I'm not sure anything we've come up with here so far is a smoking gun that gets us beyond "conspiracy theory" territory. It's one of the reasons I waited to post this until today. Was HEA looking to "protect its gate" at the HE Tourney next month by helping BU out a bit … did the way BU lost the previous Monday play a role in things? It seems weird that the league might view a "BC guy" as someone to smooth things over with BU here … but then again, why does HEA keep the aforementioned "BC guy" in its mix of available on-ice officials, when it might be more prudent from a league standpoint to avoid even the slightest perception of putting their thumbs on the scale???



So, there it is. Many thanks to our source(s) for the lead. If nothing else, a moment of transparency.

[Chuck Murray]

Re: WIS Productions Presents ... The Effingwoods Hockey Almanac

Pop quiz, while I hold off on the big (?) reveal …

(1) Which Hockey East referee is also well-known as an Everett (MA) police officer?
(2) Which Hockey East referee *purportedly had a cameo once on This Old House?

*I say "purportedly" only because I've never once watched the show
And no - that doesn't mean I got a traffic violation in Everett, ever ...

[e.cat]

Re: WIS Productions Presents ... The Effingwoods Hockey Almanac

Well, I guess "horse faced lesbians" and "fat broads" won't be voting for Bllomberg!

[Chuck Murray]

Re: WIS Productions Presents ... The Effingwoods Hockey Almanac

https://baystateroadsports.blogspot.c...season-in.html

However, the (BU) blogger did make one interesting observation that he seemed to put out there, and decided to leave alone. But it was a tantalizing loose end, and like the proverbial cat being taunted by the lure of a loose ball of yarn, your friends at WIS had to pull at that loose end to see what might be there. So be sure to check back later today, or tomorrow latest, to see how this "yarn" concludes …

Coming soon …

[BlackI]

EFFINGWOODS (WIS) - So our story begins a week ago, after a long night out and about downtown Manchester NH, on the eve of the first-in-the-nation primary. Had to get into town early to get into the "main event" and then afterwards there was plenty to do around town, for politically active folks of all persuasions. For me, the second Monday of February more often than not has meant a standing "date" about 45 minutes south of the Queen City, but that was far from my mind this time around, and getting to check a box or two off the "bucket list" - seeing the President live and in person, and "The Beast" and its motorcade - definitely had things buzzing, as our group awaited the next day's festivities. One day every four years, it's a very special place up here.

Eventually, we wrapped up our business in the "big city" (NH style, anyway) and went our separate ways, and slowly returned to the rest of the real world. Our eldest - who'd often accompanied me to the Beanpot when she was younger - checked in late to see how things had gone in ManchVegas …

KID: You guys have fun with the President's rally tonight?
WIS: Yeah, it was a blast. Manch was alive and hopping. Never seen it like that.
KID: I bet …
WIS: … even saw Tulsi - again - gonna miss that girl.
KID: You pig. Anyway … you gotta check out how the Beanpot ended.
WIS: Did Northeastern win again?
KID: Yup …
WIS: Good for them.
KID: … double OT even, after BU scored late in regulation. Like with a second left.
WIS: Wow, no kidding. Sounds like I missed a good one ...
KID: But I think Northeastern got a break at the end, bad penalty call against BU …
WIS: … so the Huskies scored on the PP?
KID: Yup.
WIS: So BU should have killed it. Whatever.
KID: You should watch the replay when you get home.
WIS: Will do. Thanks for the heads-up …

I was so tired and got back to the wilds of the WIS Estate so late, that when I hit the hay, it was lights out, and not a single thought about the Beanpot crossed my mind until well after waking up the next morning. Wall-to-wall primary coverage, but at some point I remembered our discussion, and decided to check out the Beanpot coverage. And yeah, a lot of hand-wringing on the questionable call against BU that facilitated the Huskies' back-to-back-to-back title win. Looking at the replays, it's hard not to agree, it was at best a borderline call, and you always hate to see an important game end that way. But it's not like BU was guaranteed to have won, but for the call. If it happened to UNH, would I have been frosted? Yeah, you bet. If UNH had won it 30 or so times in the past, though, I think I probably would have gotten over it. As an outsider, it felt a little like Northeastern's day in the sun and their program's landmark win was being tarnished, as if multiple wins in a row was only a BU or BC thing.

But after that, the impressions faded, and it was back to being in the thick of our once-every-four-years day in the sunshine, and an uneventful week would follow. Of course, there would be the weekend, and some discussion of the dynamics of UNH, in the thick of an unprecedented deep and close playoffs chase (reminiscent of the '67 AL pennant race for some of us old-timers), facing BU home-and-home in their first post-Beanpot games, with the teams even in the standings at the outset, and with BU enjoying a game in hand. I was in the "bring 'em on" camp, thinking that a BU team that had just lost the Beanpot, and also had been bumping along at 3-2-1 in the league, including a home loss to Merrimack, might be ripe for the picking. How wrong that proved to be on Friday night in Durham, though, as BU skated out with a 4-1 win in a game they mostly dominated from start to finish. Next up would be a trip down to Agganis, and a tall task for the 'Cats, with a win badly needed to resuscitate their chances to snag one of the final HE playoff berths.

Then things began to get interesting, with the arrival of some interesting information at WIS HQ …

… more on that to follow in the next 24 hours. Stay tuned ...

You should be more of a libertarian. You should promote local money vs. oversized ****.