Zebras: On Notice...Again!

With four officials on the ice at all times, you'd think they could raise their level of work and their level of recognition in the Stanley Cup, but apparently it's not so.

It began on Saturday night, when no penalty was called on Chris Pronger's un-called-for elbow to the head of Dean McAmmond. You can't get any more blatant without a stick being involved in the infraction, and yet, the game was allowed to get more heated because no action was taken in-game. More surprisingly, the league stepped in and levied a one-game suspension to Pronger, which he served last night. Look, folks, it's not brain surgery. Either it's nothing, or it's severe enough to warrant a penalty. I have no idea what kind of message is sent to either side, that an unwarranted elbow to the head in mid-ice gets no punishment during the game, yet the perpetrator has to miss the following contest.

Which brings me to last night, and the sudden outbreak of Ottawa flops. First it was Chris Neil in the first period. Frankly, after seeing multiple replays, I still don't know what part of the body or stick Neil latched onto before sliding 15 feet in the fetal position. Then, Ray Emery gets into the "act" when Ryan Getzlaf comes within 15 feet of the net, crosses paths with the netminder, who promptly falls on his back like he slipped on a patch of ice in his driveway. Never mind the fact that Getzlaf was following the path of the puck, and Emery was at least 3 feet out of his crease. Neither player gets a diving penalty, and the Senators receive two gift power-plays.

Unfortunately, the practice of unscrupulous acts like diving gets a good rep this time of year. It falls under the category of "doing anything to win the Cup." It's a bizarre double-standard which even I can't understand. Usually, everyone in the hockey universe shoots daggers into the eyes of any player who embellishes or flat-out dives because it goes against the nature of the game - to take punishment and give it back without drawing undue attention. Yet now, because both teams are seeking that winning edge, diving can work in your club's favor - like last night when neither of the two dives were called. Oddly enough, you also can argue that it backfired, because the Senators lost the game and now face a 3-1 series deficit going to Anaheim, but the officiating is so scattershot, they can be the beneficiaries again in Game 5 and capitalize.

This is one of the things I bang the drum for, eliminating the two-referee system. First and foremost, there are problems when you pair up a veteran with a youngster, because of the respect dynamic. There are also problems when the veteran wants to give the kid the reins, or when neither ref can decide what to do and have to call the linesmen in to confer. The players have gotten bigger since it's implementation on a full-time basis in 1998, and it seems every year none of the four officials can really escape the pace of the action except in center ice. Short of going back to one ref, maybe the league can look into putting the second ref in the replay booth, and can have clearer pictures of dives - at least then, he can communicate with the on-ice ref and suggest two penalties instead of one for the original infraction.