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Sporting News, The, June 11, 2001 by Larry Wigge

The question of whether officiating is different in the playoffs is always good for a debate. But the players know the real story: The intensity and the style of play--the postseason features a more defensive game--change in the playoffs, not the officiating.

That's just as true this year under the two-referee system.

Despite the occasional complaint that having a second referee for every game all season hasn't made a difference at all or that the guys in the boardroom are taking the hitting and character out of the game, the two-referee system allows us to see the magical skills of NHL players when they get the time and space to show them.

"I think we had a very good first year with the two-referee system," commissioner Gary Bettman says. "I know people point to inconsistencies between the two referees, but I think some of that is overblown.

"It is not a whole lot different than when people would point to inconsistencies from game to game when there was one referee."

Slashing is down, as is the constant clutching and grabbing in the neutral zone, where there is more skating and puck movement than in recent years. Even the Penguins' Mario Lemieux, despite his slash at Devils center John Madden late in the Eastern Conference finals, sees the game as more player-friendly after 3 1/2 years in retirement.

"It is definitely safer for the players," he says. "Three, four years ago, it was dangerous to go out there because of the slashing to the hands and the upper body. The slashing I remember is almost gone.

"There is open space. But you have to play smarter now because every team out there is thinking defense first."

The league is never going to totally eliminate criticism of its officials, but it can look for even better results in this rather subjective field next season in Andy van Hellemond's second year on the job as director of officials.

"I never had a perfect game in 25 years of refereeing," van Hellemond says. But he believes he is pushing the art of officiating a little closer to that level by challenging the referees and giving them consistent critiquing throughout the season. Like employees of some of the most successful businesses, each referee has a laptop computer and is instructed through e-mails.

This is not your father's officiating, and it's going to get better once the 12 to 15 first- and second-year NHL referees gain the experience of the many older referees the two-referee system is supposed to help keep in the game.

"In terms of being able to improve the flow of the game," Bettman says, "the two-referee system has been invaluable. At the same time, we know it's a work in progress."

Part of that progress was seen in rookie referees Kevin Pollock and Dean Warren working into the third round of the playoffs. And the fact that Richard Trottier and Lance Roberts were not included in the playoff officiating teams and that veteran Don Koharski was not part of the Stanley Cup finals rotation shows that van Hellemond means business. Trottier and Roberts received low regular-season grades from van Hellemond; Koharski missed a key call in the second-round Penguins-Sabres series.

Just as expansion introduced the question of where the additional players were going to come from, the league's growth to 30 teams has added to the number of referees and linesmen needed. And since the NHL took over control of the men in the striped shirts, it has continued to promote its need for a few good men by increasing salaries and benefits for officials.

"We want slashes called," van Hellemond says. "We want late hits called."

It used to be that after every whistle there was a scrum, with the pushing and shoving ruining the flow of the game. That doesn't happen much anymore, not with two referees ready to use the long arm of the law.

"We used to be individuals," van Hellemond says. "I prided myself on knowing what I had to say to a player to control a situation. I knew (what would happen) if I said to the players, `I've had enough of your mouth; if you guys keep scrumming around here and pushing after every whistle, I'm only going to take one guy, and you run the risk that it might be you.' But now, suddenly there's two sets of eyes policing the situation out there."

Van Hellemond accepts that there are both written and unwritten rules in hockey and says the ideal official sticks to the rule book 80 percent of the time and uses common sense the other 20 percent of the time. That allows officials an opportunity to feel the flow of the game and the players a chance to be creative and display their skills.

"It's a lot closer to where I want it now than I thought it would be when I took this job," van Hellemond says. "But it takes time."

Hockey is too fast of a game to be easily officiated. And I'm not ready to blow the whistle on the NHL's two-referee system.

Draft lodgers

We'll have all the latest results in our live coverage of the NHL's Entry Draft in Sunrise, Fla., at sportingnews.com/nhl. Drop by for our extensive features and analysis of the first two rounds on June 23, then stop by a day later for a wrap-up of the last seven rounds. Who wants to be in Florida in June, anyway?