You can listen to Urheilu’s Ice Hockey round on Wednesday on Radio Finland and Areena from 18:02. The gem of the round is the struggle between the Pelicans and the Jukurs.
Refereeing in the ice hockey championship league has been on the back burner again in recent weeks.
For example, last week Tapparan Rikard Grönborgof HIFK Ville Peltonen and Jukurien Olli Jokinen criticize the judiciary.
Especially Grönborg’s fever made headlines. The Tappara manager roared during the press conference of the HIFK match, the head referee For Jyri Rönn. Grönborg sniffed and urged the referee boss to “get the hell out of here.
The league’s disciplinary delegation fined Grönborg 10,000 euros for unsportsmanlike behavior.
Sports expert Top Nättinen sees that Grönbrog behaved inferiorly and that he crossed the limits with his actions. However, the expert states that this is not the first time.
– I completely understand people being upset, but that’s not really unique. Now there just happened to be Mickey on it, says Nättinen.
– Finnish coaches have been shouting like that for years. Even the kindest coaches have yelled at match observers, referee observers or whatever Lie Titles have been throughout history. It’s been like that, but the mics haven’t been on.
Grönborg disguised his criticism
According to Nättinen, for example, Grönborg has disguised his criticism of the referee so that he is worried about Finland hockey. Grönborg also clearly tries to keep the sides of his own team, which seems to be at the top of his value list.
– In quotes, he does everything he can to ensure that his players get the right treatment.
However, the expert believes that the Tappara coach also looks at things mostly from Tappara’s point of view. He hopes for objectivity in the discussion.
– These things are viewed very subjectively from behind one’s own colored glasses. I would like more of an objective point of view and that things could be seen without colored glasses.
Nättinen emphasizes that many cases and Tackles in the League are isolated cases. According to him, the wish for roughly similar activity according to the rules is appropriate, but he reminds us that the situations are not identical.
– You should stop demanding a perfect line and understand that judges and discipline are also people, says Nättinen.
More positive talk?
Many may remember how last spring Tommi Niemelä refused to comment on the judges in the SM league finals. Niemelä saw that he is not allowed to comment on refereeing. According to the league’s view, the case was about style issues, and the head coach is not prohibited from commenting on the referees.
According to Nättinen, it would also not be sustainable for the SM league to stop the mouths of the referees regarding the referees. Criticism should be presented, but in good taste and at the right moment.
The expert wonders if the operation could develop with more positive speech.
– If there was even an attempt to praise the judges, could it lead to something? What have we always achieved by barking, lynching, slandering and lying, if we wanted to change something in, for example, everyday life, when raising and coaching children? They can’t get anything done, says Nättinen.
That’s how the whistle has been blown in the SM league
The referee’s line and its changes speak volumes every spring. Already last weekend, Jukurien’s head coach Jokinen claimed at a press conference how the line of referees has become more permissive in the last month.
He would talk about how he too has to teach By Toni Lydman with his players in the following weeks, how to tear and grate within the framework of the rules.
There are no statistics on unwhistled players, but whistled players can give an indication of the situation. The most cooldown minutes per match were whistled in December, when the cooldown was 9.96 minutes per team. The lowest reading was 7.82 in January, so the difference is about two minutes.
In February, the cooling rate has turned to rise again. During the last month, the referees have been whistled for 8.3 minutes per team, while the reading from the beginning of the season was 9.0 minutes.
Nättinen has not noticed a clear change in the referee line. He also reminds that the head coaches look at the situation mostly from the point of view of their own team.
A more permissive line can affect the small differences recently, but on the other hand, also a small sample.
– When the difference is so small, I can see that it is a small sample, but I can’t avoid the thought that when spring comes, it will cool down let’s whistle less. I dare to say that there are both here.
Referee bosses monitor statistics
According to Rönn, he monitors statistics all the time himself together with the referee coaches. They also make their own data about the breaks from the matches watched on the spot.
– Fluctuations are quite normal on a certain scale. If they start throwing things from one extreme to the other, then you need to think more, Rönn says.
According to Rönn, the purpose is that during the season the players also learn the interface of the pipes better.
– In principle, it can be simplified that when following a certain structure, the number of concussions will presumably decrease during a short season, if we imagine that the players learn to implement the structure and the judges implement it and Wait, Rönn says.
According to Rönn, it was emphasized with the head judges last Tuesday that the line cannot be relaxed all together. This is an interesting line-up, because it is often said that in the playoffs, the line is loosened from the regular season.
– It is an annual claim that it should be more permissive. One thing that changes is the game. We often play harder, but in such a way that we try to implement the interface and there is no room for stupid tricks. This is certainly one of the reasons behind the discussion.
– Of course, in the playoffs, bad fouls cannot be whistled, in which case all obvious fouls are whistled. There haven’t been any instructions about us having a different line in the playoffs in previous years and there aren’t any this year, says Rönn.