IrishHockeyFan
Still outranks his daughter
Re: Western Michigan Hockey 2010-11: Maybe it was all a dream.
as an outsider (sort of, I guess, since I rooted for the other team) I think Moe's comments on the officiating in his blog were spot on. Wilkins has regressed as an official as far as I'm concerned. Years ago there were quite a few referees in the league who were not as bad as he was (lets face it, we haven't actually been blessed with a lot of good ones), but I thought he worked his way over the years to being one of the not so bad ones.
But last year and now this, he is back to his ways of being maddeningly inconsistent. I noted, either here or in our thread, that his partner Lacina on Friday made no calls, and I'm not sure how many of the 14 penalties called Saturday were called by him. When the CCHA decided to go to the two referee/two linesmen system, I opined that the worst thing about that was if we can't find enough qualified guys for each game to have 1 competent official, how are we going to come up with enough guys for 2? What I didn't envision was how there seems to be some confusion still on how they are supposed to work together. There is a system in place, I know, but I can't figure out what it is. And too often, it looks like they can't either.
As for the Broncos, they do look improved from recent teams. Different attitude, paying more attention to sound fundamental hockey from the looks of it. Too many of Culhane's teams seemed to be less than the sum of their individual part. Hopefully this coach will change that equation for the better. Good luck the rest of the way, at least until Feb. 25th.
as an outsider (sort of, I guess, since I rooted for the other team) I think Moe's comments on the officiating in his blog were spot on. Wilkins has regressed as an official as far as I'm concerned. Years ago there were quite a few referees in the league who were not as bad as he was (lets face it, we haven't actually been blessed with a lot of good ones), but I thought he worked his way over the years to being one of the not so bad ones.
But last year and now this, he is back to his ways of being maddeningly inconsistent. I noted, either here or in our thread, that his partner Lacina on Friday made no calls, and I'm not sure how many of the 14 penalties called Saturday were called by him. When the CCHA decided to go to the two referee/two linesmen system, I opined that the worst thing about that was if we can't find enough qualified guys for each game to have 1 competent official, how are we going to come up with enough guys for 2? What I didn't envision was how there seems to be some confusion still on how they are supposed to work together. There is a system in place, I know, but I can't figure out what it is. And too often, it looks like they can't either.
As for the Broncos, they do look improved from recent teams. Different attitude, paying more attention to sound fundamental hockey from the looks of it. Too many of Culhane's teams seemed to be less than the sum of their individual part. Hopefully this coach will change that equation for the better. Good luck the rest of the way, at least until Feb. 25th.
