Re: RPI 2010-2011 IV: We Still Have Allen York. Sorry, Everyone!
That's good. That means that he has a wide range of very relevant experience to base his report on, even if he didn't cover the Olympics.
Very interesting story. I like Paul Stewart and thought that his appointment as head of officials by the ECAC would bring some credibility and some improvement in the consistency if not the overall quality. That has not happened. It appears that Stewart is mainly an apologist for the officials; at least in public. We don�t know what goes on behind closed doors after games. There may be reprimands and reassignments and demotions, but those are never made public and that�s okay. There are actions and patterns such as pulling officials from certain assignments that, if taken, could provide some insight. For instance, why was Bryan Hicks allowed to work several more RPI games after the incident at Union. His latest, the Harvard game was a disgrace. Harvard had something like a 9-1 power play advantage in a pretty tame game.
Mr. Stewart�s public defense of his referees after the RPI-Cornell game is laudable, but in private he should be watching the tape of that game with them and questioning several calls, including the two Brutlag penalties and the Foss call. The call on the hit from behind on Kennedy was also a game misconduct, not a DQ for a vicious hit that clearly injured RPI�s captain and senior leader. The interference call against RPI on the play where Merriam was decked may have been justified, but I have not seen the replay.
Two points need to be made:
1. These two referees are two of the better officials in the league, but there were certainly some strange calls in this game.
2. The officials did not cost RPI the game.
Kotyra and Feola usually do a pretty good job, but not that night. There is also clearly a double standard in this league. The Cornell coach, much like Bill Cleary when he was at Harvard, can whine and complain and then the officials will seemingly bend over backwards to get him off their backs. Other coaches just get more penalties called against their team.
The first interference call against Brutlag looked more like the Cornell player trying to push him offside and Brutlag standing his ground. It should have been an offside call or an interference call against Cornell. The interference call against Brutlag in OT was a disgrace. It happened at center ice. Feola was 100 feet away behind the Cornell goal and screened by Brutlag. The Cornell player brushed Brutlag and took a dive. It should have been a no call, but any penalty should have been against Cornell for diving.
As for leaving the ECAC; I don�t see that happening. I think RPI likes being in the ECAC and likes being associated with the Ivies. If it were simply a hockey decision, RPI would�ve gone to HE years ago. There are other factors involved. I was letting off steam when I said that the AD should use that big stick in any discussion with the league. The only hope for RPI Hockey fans is that when the Big 10 forms a league in 4 or 5 years, that it will create a ripple effect that makes a move by RPI to some other league desirable.
