As far as i know the act of icing the puck when there is not long left in a game is a common tactic, and besides, at this level of hockey, is it really important?
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I dunno. If Mike had stuck you in the box for delaying the game, would you have thought it was important?

I was the one who iced the puck to start off. There was from what I gathered 5 seconds left. The DIHL is what they call a beer league in Canada, no one takes it seriously. I mean if you are considering making a rule change about this, then that is pretty sad. It’s part of the game and a good defencive strategy and if you want to make a rule change, then why don’t you make a rule where you can’t play a trap? My god you refs have got to stop being so anal about things, especially with things like this. It’s beer league guys, let the little things go.
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Well it’s a discussion that Mike started having with Stefan, and then with me, about the appropriate thing to do in the situation. I don’t think you should call delay of game on an icing, but if Mike comes up with a different answer, and backs it up with a rule or something from the IIHF casebook, then good on him. I mentioned it in the forum because it’s an interesting point, and as Ryan pointed out, the rules were designed for stop-time, not running-time games. One of the things we’ve been talking to the referee coordinator about is providing more information to players about rules and referee decisions, so that players can better understand the rules and how they’re implemented, so that they can play better hockey.

I understand that a bunch of players do treat the DIHL as just a social league, but a lot of people also take it very seriously. I know it was a big thing up at John McGlashan last year when their team won the B grade. Lots of people will never play hockey more serious than this, and some of them don’t view it as a ‘beer league’ at all. They expect referees to get it right (as I noted in the original post, we do get things wrong occasionally!). I’ve been in DIHL games where refereeing has affected the outcome of the game (the infamous Blake-blowing-the-whistle-denying-Pete-Sanford-a-goal incident of Autumn 2006 possibly denied Bullfrogs a spot in the final).

I can’t speak for other referees, but personally I’d want to referee a DIHL game just as well as a Prem game, and just as well as a Peewee house league game. Just because the skill level and intensity varies, doesn’t mean that the refereeing changes. Most of us referees are relatively new to the job, and the one of the ways we get better is by talking to each other about our decisions and the rules and providing feedback to each other. It’s a question that I’d want to know the answer for for a DIHL game, because it might come up when I’m refereeing Dunedin Prems vs Queenstown, and I bet then you’d want us to get it right.

And Ryan suggested the rule change, and he’s not a referee. So his anal nature comes to him naturally ” title=”Smiley” />