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Doyle: Is the OHL being consistent following Liambas incident?
11/08/09 21:12 , Categories: blog It has been nine days since the Michael Liambas/Ben Fanelli incident of Oct. 30 and as of right now it appears the Ontario Hockey League's on-ice officials are confused as to the standards.
...Just 48 hours after the incident, the Sarnia Sting were in Kitchener to take on the Rangers. Many people were wondering how this game would end up with the Rangers still reeling from what they witnessed two nights earlier. During this game, almost any hard check was called a penalty. One of the worst calls came late in the game when Kitchener's John Moore was sent off for a head check that TV angles (with the same angle the referee had) looked to indicate it was not the proper call.
Just about anyone who participated in, attended, or watched that game felt things were being called too tight and in reaction to what happened in the previous Kitchener home game.
Now, let's fast-forward to Sunday's Ottawa 67's/Sarnia Sting game in Sarnia, and watch this hit for yourself.
The player making the hit is Ottawa's Jon Carnevale, while on the receiving end was Sarnia's Brent Sullivan. Here is what was called on the play:
1 - OTT Carnevale, 6:02 - Fighting , 5 min
1 - SAR Preisinger, 6:02 - Instigator , 2 min (PP)
1 - SAR Preisinger, 6:02 - Fighting , 5 min
1 - SAR Preisinger, 6:02 - 10-Min. Misc. , 0 min
As you can see, no penalty called on the hit. Sullivan was shaken up on the play but got up under his own power and stayed in the game. There was only one referee in the game and was positioned along the far boards about halfway into the zone. The video does not show whether or not he actually saw the hit or his eyes were looking elsewhere. Last week the OHL specifically talked about these types of hits, looking to eliminate them from the game.
Now, I don't think the book should be thrown at Jon Carnevale - not at all. He is just doing exactly what he's been instructed to do, pressure the puck on the forecheck as quickly as possible and finish his check. But after what we heard last week, for something like this to go uncalled does seem like quite a stretch.
5 comments
I would imagine to have standardized officating that there would need to be a gathering of all officals to discuss and learn what's and what's not acceptable.
The problem I would imagine is that the "on ice officals" may not want to hamper their career by being known as being too tight-assed on calls!
Sullivan had his back to Carnavale the entire time, Carnavale left his feet when throwing this hit, he came in full speed pursuing the puck.
The only difference here is that Sullivan wasn't hospitalized and that is the only bright spot in this picture.
On the fight: Pressinger deserved the instigator yes, however Carnevale got up as the linesman were trying to separate the fight and was still trying to go at Pressi the linesman had to tell him multiple times it was over before he backed down to me that is an aggressor penalty.
Later in the game there was also a hit that was laid on Greg Sutch, I don't know if there is footage of it somewhere but it was two Ottawa players that both targeted the head of Sutch (looked like he had his bell rung big time).
To me there should be a couple reviews from the game from the OHL head office. One of them technically should be a year suspension if Branch is going to be consistent on that type of hit. Especially so soon after the incident.
Ron Soucie wears Sutch's old number No.4 in Sarnia.
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