Two recent incidents have called various aspects of N.H.L. officiating into question.

The Alex Burrows-Stephane Auger flap, in which the Canucks player accused referee Auger of a personal vendetta against him, has captured the the hockey media’s interest. It’s sensational, involving a colorful hard-working player who is suddenly scoring loads of goals playing with two talented linemates — the Sedin brothers. Burrows chose to go public with his gripe. Headlines guaranteed. The N.H.L. fined Burrows $2,500, said there was no evidence to discipline Auger and declared the case closed.

But, at least equally important is the matter we discussed yesterday: A video replay showing evidence of goal being scored by the Flyers against the Penguins was not provided quickly enough by FSN Pittsburgh to officials reviewing that play. Because FSN Pittsburgh is the Penguins television rights-holder, it called into question the integrity of the video review system.

Again, here’s the clip…

Because the producer of the telecast, Lowell MacDonald, Jr., eventually showed the clip, it led us to believe that its embargo was accidental. FSN Pittsburgh took a different view, decided MacDonald’s conduct was unacceptable and suspended him indefinitely.



In a statement released Tuesday (quoted by The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) FSN said: “There is nothing more important than the integrity of the game. During last Thursday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, a definitive replay of a Flyers goal was not aired prior to the conclusion of the official review and, as a result, a Flyers goal was not awarded. Fortunately, this did not change the outcome of the game. Nonetheless, FSN Pittsburgh’s failure to provide video to the league officials in a timely fashion was wholly unacceptable. FSN Pittsburgh has addressed this matter and has taken steps to ensure that such a failure does not occur again.”

The Penguins also released a statement supporting the suspension and added, “The integrity of the game is paramount.”

The no-goal call, based on evidence that was inconclusive, was not game-altering (although it did deprive Simon Gagne of his 500th career point), but the significance of compromising the replay system can’t be underestimated.

Flyers General Manager Paul Holmgren told Chuck Gormley of the Camden Courier-Post that he planned to raise the issue at the next general managers’ meeting in March. “Holmgren said the system is flawed if local television crews can dictate what is made available to the war room in Toronto and, more importantly, what is not,” Gormley wrote and quoted Holmgren saying, “You can’t have that happen in a game, no matter what the score is. The points we’re playing for are too valuable.”

This is the first time in the 18 years of N.H.L. video review that a producer has been disciplined for withholding video from the review system. It’s a system has not been free of controversy (most notably when crease violations were added to the list of reviewable plays in 1996). But it has been overwhelmingly successful in determining goal/no goal decisions. Game after game, it operates seamlessly between the officials on the ice and Hockey Operations staff overseeing events in Toronto.

Still, as we wrote yesterday, the potential for conflict has always existed because local producers are either employees of their club or the club’s television rights-holder. The crew often travels with the club, sharing charter flights and bus rides. They are nearly part of the team. It would be naive to think that this sort of thing has not gone undetected previously.

If the N.H.L. determines this incident needs to be addressed league-wide, what options are available?

The threat of fines may not be a solution. The league has no authority to fine a local television outlet, although the club could be fined if its rights-holder was not fully cooperative with the video review officials. It’s easy to imagine 30 owners grumbling upon hearing that proposal.

The league could place an off-ice official in the television control room or truck, insuring that no chicanery takes place. There are currently 15 off-ice officials at each game: an official scorer, a timekeeper, a penalty timekeeper, six real-time scoring statisticians, two goal judges, one video goal judge, two penalty box attendants and a television commercial coordinator. If adding a 16th doesn’t break the budget (cue more owner grumbling), it risks a frigid response from production crews who may not welcome the intrusion.

There is an easier solution: Make it mandatory to show every replay the producer has, regardless of whether it is a good view of the play or not.

Currently, a producer asks his replay technician if he’s got a good shot of that play, and the producer watches that replay on a small monitor. He makes a quick judgment of its worth. If he thinks it’s not a revealing replay, it may never be seen. Showing all the available replay angles on the telecast and thus furnishing them to the video review system takes the onus off the producer and gives the league what it needs.

The replay official would need to know ahead of time how many replay machines each control room or truck has that night and he’ll expect that number of angles will be shown on the telecast. It’s probably not fool-proof but it’s better than what exists now.