NHL needs to be accountable for Pronger call
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Flyers Report: Broad Street Bull
NHL needs to be accountable for Pronger call
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
Referee Ghislain Hebert has some ‘splainin’ to do, Lucy.
So does the NHL.
Hebert, in his first full season as an NHL referee, needs to be held accountable for the manner in which he made a call Friday, costing the Flyers a victory over visiting Calgary.
But don’t hold your breath.
Hebert ruled that the Flyers’ Chris Pronger waved his hand in front of Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff and gave him a two-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The call negated a Mike Richards overtime goal that would have given the Flyers a 3-2 win.
Instead, the Flyers lost in a shoot-out, 3-2.
Replays showed Pronger with his left arm raised and quickly brought down _ and no penalty called until three seconds later, after Richards’ shot went past Kiprusoff. When Richards took his shot, Pronger’s stick was down, with both hands clutching it.
After the game, reporters tried to find out why the ref waited three seconds before calling the penalty.
On Saturday, after my repeated calls and e-mails, the NHL issued a lame statement by Terry Gregson, the league’s senior VP and director of officiating:
"The spirit and intent of the unsportsmanlike conduct rule is to keep an acceptable hockey decorum in the game, in this case when a player is screening,” Gregson said. “This type of act is outside the normal boundaries and needs to be controlled for the good of the game.
"This type of action _ fortunately for the game and for our officials _ has been a rare occurrence (and) it must be penalized when witnessed."
Blah, blah, blah.
I told the PR executive who sent the statements that I needed to talk to Gregson, needed to find out why the call was not made immediately. I also had other questions _ such as why the NHL does not make it mandatory for a referee to explain a controversial decision, and if the fact Pronger had his back to the goalie would have affected the call.
I was told Gregson was traveling.
Several hours earlier, I gave the NHL my cell number and asked Gregson to call me.
He never did.
Draw your own conclusions.
* * * * *
For constant Flyers updates, follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BroadStBull.
Hey Sam, why in the hell do YOU think the NHL should answer to YOU?— Birdie17- Because that's how the press works. The NHL should answer to its paying customers, the fans. Since a few million (ok thousand) fans constantly bombarding the league offices with questions would not be efficient, reporters ask the questions, collect the answers, and REPORT back to the public. You know, like how it worked before the media was overrun with blowhards trying to shout each other down and advance their own agendas.— JettMartinez
- Birdie, who SHOULD the NHL answer to? Congress ? Did you think about your comment before you said it or were you to busy being a Phildelphian?— franky
Comment removed.- it was a bs play by pronger who deserved the penalty— notch44
- I think every flyer fan should contact league office. In all of my years of watching hockey...that is close to the top as worst call to reverese a clear victory.— Tripod691
- Comment removed.
- Sometimes the NHL has all of the elements of professional wrestling. When it knows it doesn't have a clear-cut position on a controversy, the leadership goes into turtle mode. They did it with the whole Simon Gagne/FSN Pittsburgh replay, they're doing it now with the Commissioner/e-mail controversy, and they'll do it with this because they didn't have a clear cut rule in place which filtered down to the on-ice officials hesitating to make a call which in turn screwed the Flyers out of a goal. Just another day in a professional league that can't even figure out how to consistently penalize potentially career-ending head shots.— stormrider
- This is really terrible. Reminiscent of the "crease-gate" down in Dallas when Buffalo lost in triple over time to lose the cup when Hull's skate was in the crease. The NHL needs to let pucks in the net count as goals.— drew138
- I'm a bit more upset that the Flyers failed to take advantage of the 6 power plays they got than the call, which actually does follow a precedent set by the league. The timing of the call was brutal, but the call was actually a valid one.— JSaq
- Why are there 2 refs? Is there a senior ref who can overturn a bad call? I hope frog gets demoted to juniors.— brio
- For any moron who does not watch hockey, that was a terrible call and reactionary. I am not a pessimist that thinks the Flyers always get cheated, they don't. As a long time hockey player and fan, this league and it's officials are an embarrassment to hockey fans everywhere, that play had no effect on the goalie, the call was late and very very marginal, the rule states intent, there was no intent and you do not negate a game winning goal 4.2 seconds later with no convictions, stand behind your call at least and defend it. There is no accountability in this sport, which is why is continues to be the most exciting game, but least watched sports league by a long shot.— SW FL Phan
- The ref blew the call, man up.— joepir
- Sam-Let it go,it's clear Ghislain Herbert blew the call,no one is rushing to his defense.By the way,I believe he's still on a split NHL-AHL contract so your claim that he's in his first full year is wrong.
Stormrider-Good points but your last sentence could be applied to the NFL as well.— (reeducated)Yankee Air Pirate - For those of you who think that was a legitimate call, you obviously understand the rules as poorly as Hebert. The Flyers DID score on the powerplay, but the refs botched it yet again. Thanks, Sam, for making the effort.— Bazalite
- How could anyone sAy it was the right call? Obviously, like the refs, they do not know the rule, which states the player interfering MUST be FACING the goalie. END of debate!— flyersfan4alongtime
- It's time to let it go for 3 reasons: 1) NOTHING is going to change the outcome, 2) We have the most WORST refs of any professional sport, and 3) This is how the league is- inconsistent. When they can't explain why they F*ed up they don't answer emails/calls and then release some lame excuse that had nothing to do with what actually happened. The Flyers have been dealing with this BS league leadership for so long the fans have just accepted that's the way it is. Yes it sucks, yes it's lame, and no nothing will ever be one about it so just accept it and move on because lamenting about it for days after the fact just keeps us in the past and we have the rest of the season to look at. Use this as fuel for our fire and let's burn through our opponents so this doesn't happen again. But it probably will so don't fall out of your seat when it does. Welcome to the NHL.— Kanayd
- Gregson is at least 120 years old....WAY too out of touch with todays game.— LiLAlConroy
- I love nothing more than calling out an idiot Philadelphian athlete for doing something stupid. But this was worse than the Asante Samuel call. Its not the fact he made the call...its the fact he didn't signal the call until the puck was in the net. Basically, the ref saw Kipprusoff wasn't set when the puck went in and felt like he should call goaltender interference. Then he conferred with the other ref, realized no actually touching occurred, and came up with the unsportsmanlike contact penalty. This rule was created because of what Sean Avery did in the playoffs against Martin Brodeur. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec_2oKWe2Gw Watch that and compare that to what happened Friday. If you think the plays are comparable, leave hockey to the rest of us. Seriously.......go away and leave hockey to those of us who understand what we are watching.— adzack3441
- If you wondered why the NHL did not answer you..just check out and see who is running the league,,then you will have your answer..— STEVE5444
- You all know that if the league admitted that a mistake had occurred, then every Flyers fan would be calling for this guys head, which is ridiculous. As we know in EVERY major sport, the refs are forced to make decisions in split-second (or 3 second) timing and not all of them are correct. Yes, some are worse than others and can have a major affect on the game, but let's stop thinking the NHL has something against the Flyers every time there is a bad call. Unfortunately, it's the nature of the game, always has been, always will be. Sad, but true.— aisaac
- It's a long season. These things balance out. (Keep in mind Pronger has a career-long history as in irritant--caveat emptor)— mikeytrapp
- Googling "Sean Avery rule" returns a few articles right around the time of Avery's incident and every single one includes the following quote from the NHL in regards to enforcing rule 75: "An unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty (Rule 75) will be interpreted and applied, effective immediately, to a situation when an offensive player POSITIONS HIMSELF FACING THE OPPOSITION'S GOALTENDER and engages in actions such as waving his arms or stick in front of the goaltender's face, for the purpose of improperly interfering with and/or distracting the goaltender as opposed to positioning himself to try to make a play." It's bad enough the the referees obviously don't even know what the rule says, let alone that they waited until the GWG was scored before they called it. Perhaps if Kippra wasn't so busy trying to slash Pronger a split-second before the shot went over his shoulder he could've been in better position to make the save. It was a terrible call, and even now no one in the league office has admitted as such. It's only a point over the course of an 82 game season, but single points can decide crucial playoff seedings at the end of a season.— kami
- Yo notch44...go kill yourself. You are an idiot and a moron and provided ZERO input to this article. You obviously don't know the rule just like Ghislain Herbert.— Diamond Jim Brady
- All Pronger had to do was keep his hands on his stick where they belong and we're not having this conversation— Flyers1975
- Ah,for the good old days when the refs would put their whistles in their pockets for the third period !!— jeromie
Sam, give us the phone number and email address of the league office so we can deluge them with complaints. Pronger did nothing wrong. The call would have been wrong if it was made right away, that it was made seconds later, after the goal was scored, makes it hard to define as anything other than an attempt to fix the game.— Pelti- Cherry not happy with Pronger's antics
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2010/11/27/sp-cherry.html— Larry 1972 - Traveling, no cell phone, does he have At&t!— NYPHILLYPHAN
- NHL refereeing makes the NBA refs look legitimate...— dougleader
