Now, This Really Bothers Me . . .

Reading a thread on NOOF, poster REFUG68 mentions that only Killer gets the ref’s attention during a game [post link]:

(a good instance and something that STILL ticks me off, was in game 2 of the east finals, when the Petes got called for an icing on the PK, Dick Todd was calling the ref over and he really didn't want to hear any of it, however every time i've seen Kilrea motion to a ref, he goes right on skating over.) [Sic]

After someone mentioned this on NOOF the last time, I made sure that I captured the following pic of Coach Todd and the ref conferring. In fact, they were conferring about the exact play REFUG68 is referring to from Game 2 in Ottawa.

It’s not just Killer who gets to ‘talk’ w/refs during the game!

Here we can see that when Todd motioned to him, Smith went “right on skating over.” And Smith listened to him – didn’t necessarily cowtow to what he said – but Smith is clearly listening to him.

And it’s interesting that every time he’s seen Killer motion the refs over they go. In the same vein, I guess I could then say that every time Coach Todd motions the refs (since this was the one time I saw him motioning), they go “right on skating over.”

Puhlease.

I’ve seen plenty of instances where Killer is freaking out on the bench about a call/non-call, and no one skates over to him - ignores him. Sometimes coaches freak out . . . Sometimes refs listen . . . Sometimes they give the coaches warnings . . . penalties . . . whatever. But please don’t misrepresent what really happened to make a point.