Everyone who works in hockey could change their attitude and behavior today, writes Jussi Paasi.
Jussi Paasi sports reporter
I chatted a couple of days ago Ismo Lehkonen with about the situation of a hockey match, before the recording of the Ikan änäri podcast. Experienced expert Lehkonen had noted what happened last week in the NHL game between Calgary and Columbus.
In that situation, Calgary’s goalie skated behind his goal to cut off the puck, but the puck unfortunately bounced off the head referee’s leg in front of Calgary’s goal. Columbus, of course, easily put the puck in the goal.
What happened after the goal was noteworthy.
Nothing at all.
A few of Calgary’s players looked at the head referee, the team’s coaching even seemed a little funny about the incident. That’s all. Not even the audience – at least based on the TV pictures – showed their opinion.
Lehkonen and I started to think about what would have happened in a similar situation in the hockey SM league.
The coach would have been furious and smashed his flipchart to pieces, the players would have surrounded the referee and barked at him to the bottom of hell.
Not to mention the audience.
The difference in attitude towards striped jerseys between the NHL and the SM league is shockingly large. In Finland, you can freely vent your pain to the judges, almost in any situation.
The phenomenon is sickening to watch. I already wrote about it earlier this season, when Ilves’ head coach Antti Pennanen and a number of tassel-eared players fell into embarrassing behavior towards the justice-distributors.
It wasn’t the first or the last time judges were made spit cups.
The pilot of another club from Tampere has since been guilty of the same ridiculous nonsense. Tapparan Rikard Grönborg has “rehabilitated” by slamming the door of the changing room and repeatedly yelling at the judges.
It’s sad that no one intervenes in this nightmare. At the same time, it is revealed in a harsh way how referees are still not respected in Finland.
Ask a Finnish referee who has been able to whistle games at the Olympics when the world’s best players have been there, how it felt. That is, the respect that the referees receive from, for example, the Canadian team.
It is something that Härmä judges can only dream of.
Of course, it is about a deeper hockey culture, but even in the SM league it would be easy to solve the matter in the end. Or at least move to a better place.
Bad behavior towards a referee should automatically become a penalty. Pennanen, Grönborg and everyone else would learn quickly if they had to sit on the side of the stands for a few games.
It’s about the attitude towards the judges. And everyone working in the sport can have an impact on that today.
Respect the game, opponents and referees. It’s that simple.
On Friday evening, the Ice Hockey Round at Areena from 6 p.m. Matches SaiPa–KalPa, Ässät–Tappara, Ilves–Kärpät.