Low-goal matches and referees who allow most things.
Now Håkan Loob sees the level during the SM final series.
– It’s not right for it to be like that, says the icon.
Skellefteå and Rögle, two teams that are fundamentally skilled offensively, meet in the SM final, and it has been mostly low-scoring stories. Skellefteå did win the third match in the series with 3-2, but the first two meetings both ended 1-0, once in favor of Skellefteå, and once for Rögle.
Big judge criticism
Now experts believe that the judge’s level may be the basis for the narrow-minded stories. In SVT’s “Hockey Night” on Thursday, the experts Jonas Andersson and Håkan Loob discussed the fact that the referees seem to allow significantly more during the final series than they did earlier in the season. The higher level means that the defensively skilled defenders, and bigger players on the ice, are allowed to go in harder and use the puck more.
It also leads, in turn, to fewer expulsions, which also means that goals are missed to a greater degree.
– For me, there is a problem, and that is that the level has been turned up so much, says Jonas Andersson, and raises Rögle’s Lian Bichsel as an example.
– He is almost two meters tall and weighs 106 kilograms. The level has been raised, so he gets away with things now that he didn’t in the regular season, and he had huge problems with ejections before.
“That is not right”
Jonas Andersson believes that the level of refereeing favors the bigger backs, and that they are allowed to play so hard makes it difficult for teams to get around and create chances, while at the same time sending offs do not occur.
– With the size he has, and the club he gets to use now in the playoffs… It’s pretty much impossible to get around him, impossible, he says.
Jonas Andersson is also supported by Håkan Loob, who believes that the players quickly learn to push the limits.
– It’s like a child. If allowed, it becomes a little more of it, and a little more, and a little more. Which I can agree with; it’s not right that it happens like that, but players are really no more stupid than if it’s been done once, it’s been done twice. Then this is how I play, and then the judges look this way.
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