btriley01 wrote:As a face-off middie, I have had my stick checked 12 times in 4 games. There is no possible way that my stick could ever, ever be illegal. There needs to be a rule about checking a stick that many times. I understand that I could fix my stick to make it illegal, but this is absurd.
Well, there are a few things to consider.
As part of speeding up the checks, we're not writing numbers down since that would take extra time (more than you think: communicate numbers to partners, get out cards, get out pencils, write them down, put stuff away. We're probably looking at at least 5 seconds for this in an ideal situation, and often more).
If you're getting checked 3 times per game
at the faceoff, I'd say the officials just aren't varying things enough. Between doing some after goals, some during timeouts, and some during faceoffs—and it doesn't have to be the faceoff middies that get checked, we can check wing players, too—there are plenty of ways to do this besides checking the faceoff guys repeatedly. And there are some officials who are so worried about having to call a stick penalty that they might keep checking you because you're legal.
However, if you're a stud player and happen to get checked before a faceoff here, then after you scored a goal there, then during a timeout because another official saw you make sick dodge and couldn't comprehend how the ball stayed in, then checking you three times a game might make more sense.
I doubt anyone is doing it to pick on you, and—as you say—your stick is legal, so all the attention you are attracting is helping your team if you happen to have any teammates with illegal gear.
btriley01 wrote:Another point to be made is the inefficiency of the stick checks. These multiple checks slow the game down, and the refs hurry through the check, even at times looking over minor details that would, in earlier times, would be completely illegal. I remember specifically a check where the ball was caught when turned to the side. I thought you were supposed to do it at least three times,
Thinking doesn't make it so. There's no rule on this sort of thing; we'll often repeat it to confirm before we throw the flag. One rule of thumb—not widely distributed yet, but it will be soon—is that if any aspect of the check is taking more than 5 seconds, give the stick the benefit of the doubt and move on. In other words, if you think it's under 6.5" but you're really having to "work" to get the tape measure in the right spot to say it's under, just move on to the next part of the check since the stick is not clearly illegal.
btriley01 wrote: but they did it once and let it go since it eventually came loose after a good shaking. It was pathetic. Something has to happen.
If this is what happened, you may be in the afforementioned situation of having had officials who were trying not to make the illegal stick calls. I don't know what happened, but if I had to shake the stick to try to dislodge the ball, there would have been a flag.
This is an issue of consistency, and I guess I don't know what you can do to get people to toss aside their personal philosophies and line up behind a unified philosophy. If you have any ideas, let me know. Maybe we could establish "Re-Education Centers," where we could ship non-compliant officials for 8 weeks of indoctrination?
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