NHL Penalty Madness Must End

This is not right. This is not fun. This is not acceptable. This must end. I have been saddened by my team's play and troubles of late, and of the problems with the league, and that has kept me from blogging about the sport I love, but I cannot stand by any longer.

When I watch NHL hockey, I come to see the best players in the world play the fastest non-motorized team sport in the world, and generate some of the most exciting, guns blazing action in the sporting world. Games like one earlier this season on Hockey Night in Canada between the Sens and the Habs define the level of excitement that you can have, even without much scoring.

But this season we Sens fans have had to endure blasphemy. We have had to watch as the trap sucks the life out of the game. We have had to watch as Anaheim "abides" by the cap, and tears up the league with discount, unretired players at the steepest of discounts. But worst of all, haunting us every game, we find that the referees are butchering the game.

From the start of the season it has been non-calls, wrong calls, and not a game has gone by without plenty to complain about from the men in white and black. I think of memories of checks on puck-carrying Sundin that led to penalties, non-calls when sticks broke as they were cross-checked over our captain's back, blindness from the referees when our boys in red carry the puck and end up tripped, slashed, and brutalized, only to go unguarded by the referees.

We have the ability. I do not doubt the capability of our referees to call the games properly, but something must be done to fix this, to send the message that we hate the scourges that plague our game and strip it of its dignity. Fair and even refereeing needs to be established across the league, east and west. The appearance of home-team skewing and star and beloved players being blessed by the calls and non-calls around them needs to evaporate.

Maybe we need to remember that we once called goals only with a man behind the glass behind the net, and now we realize that many goals exist or don't exist when we use the magic of technology to slow down our game enough to lay fair judgement. Some form of technology, perhaps alongside the refs, or allowing 'penalty reviews' similar to goal reviews, with some form of limiting, could be investigated, but all this is moot. There is a problem, and it needs attention drawn to it, it needs to be fixed.

As a fan of the great sport of hockey, I feel that my sport has been cheapened, has been nickeled and dimed. I feel that the reffing in this league has been anything but perfect this season, and at many times worthless. I want all those, across the league, who would agree that our sport has been cheapened to join with me. For cheapening our sport, and letting it bleed, I want all hockey-loving and passionate NHL fans out there who share my views, no matter what colour your jersey is, to join me in sending Gary Bettman a message. If you feel as I feel, send a nickel to Gary Bettman. Send him a roll of them if you want and can afford it. Stamp, nickel, envelope and all, it costs you less than a dollar to complain, but the damage to our sport, especially should it go unnoticed, cannot have a price placed upon it.

Please join with me, and mail your nickel(s) to:
Gary Bettman
National Hockey League
1251 Avenue of the Americas
47th Floor
New York, NY 10020