I had the following correspondence with two guys at Douglas Webber in March….

Orginally I asked about where I could get tickets to the Games this year?

Reply #1 – Craig

Hello

Due to the slow development of the ice floor manufacturing we have postponed these games until next year. We have just returned from the USA where we went to several NHL games and were hosted by both teams. Amazing experience. We will announce when they are to be played here in NZ and due to the international commitments of the teams we will not get a chance to plan them around NZIHL games.. thanks for your interest

Craig @ DW

#Email 2 –  I responded with the following email

Hey Craig

Cool. That sounds good.
When you say you were hosted by both teams, which teams are we talking about?
My understanding of Team USA and Team Canada is that they only get pulled together shortly before Olympics and World Champs? Maybe I am wrong, or are the teams coming not actually national mens teams?

Also if you are planning on hosting in June, that is right in the middle of Stanley Cup, so I presume that means the teams will be depleted of players involved in that?

That’s cool you went to some NHL games, they are an amazing experience.
Well keep me posted what ever you can do to raise exposure of our sport in NZ will be great. Its your event but would be good if you could co-ordinate with NZIHL, maybe to get some warmup games to showcase local talent. The NZIHL season runs from June-September so falls where you had the games down. In fact out of of pure coincidence the games in CHCH and Auckland you originally scheduled fell exactly on weekends NZIHL was in those cities.
http://www.nzihl.com is their website.

Good luck

Email #3 – Response from Craig

Hey
We are hosted by the co-ordinators of the teams in Toronto and NY. We will keep you all posted

Craig @DW

#Email 4 The response I got from the other guy generated from my very first email asking about dates.

Hi

Are you aware the games between USA and Canada are now scheduled for July 2011? Tickets won?t be on sale till at least January sorry.

Regards,

Gareth Webber | Director

#Email 5 – My response to Gareth

Hey

Yeah Gareth I got email from other guy I forget his name, saying the games were delayed due to issue with getting your ice making stuff made.

So who are the two teams that are coming? Are they actually Team Canada and Team USA?
I will come watch your games either way, but would like to know who is actually coming.
Team Canada and Team USA senior mens team would be together in May for World Champs but wouldn’t stay together till June I wouldn’t imagine? I could be wrong just speculating based on what the NZ national mens team does.

Also you state the teams regularly sell out big arenas? Team Canada and Team USA don’t meet each other in regular competition, maybe once a year if they are lucky? NHL/AHL teams on the other hand do meet regularly and sell out arenas, are the teams coming from those leagues?

I mean at the end of the day, I would love to see good quality Hockey in this country, so whoever you bring is all good.

Also the dates you orginally proposed lined up exactly with the NZIHL schedule including cities, maybe you should get in touch with NZIHL (http://www.nzihl.com) to get them to play prematch games or something (that is more based on you wish for the games to promote the sport in NZ, I realise there is not much benefit for you to do this)

By the way your website for nzicehockey.com appears to be down, will it be coming back up with information anytime soon?

Cheers

#Email 6 – Response from Gareth….

Hi

It’s too soon to answer a lot of your questions unfortunately, as there are a number of things to sort before we are given details of the teams and players.

The hockey site should be up within 3 months, at which point you can see all the information we release.

Thanks for your interest.

Take what you will out of those emails….

I think what Vpatrol is getting at is the Referees at the top level have remained stagnant since the inception of the NZIHL, while the level of play has increased every year.

The question he is asking is what pathways can be put in place to improve this level. The pathways exist to generate more referees, there are courses to do and lower grades to referee in.
At the top level though, there doesn’t seem to be any continued education (I may be wrong on this, and if I am please correct me) If you are a referee, what things are done to lead to your development?

And this is not a case of saying the Referees are shit, we hate them. Because that is no good, and to be fair I think the referees are getting slightly better, just not improving at the rate they should be. Also I would like to point out, given the measly sums of money and abuse they get, I appreciate them sticking around to ref.

I guess what this topic comes down to, is we have identified a deficiency how can we (players, admin and refs) move forward.

One suggestion I had, but would probably require the referee in chief pay scale to be bumped, is make it mandatory for all home teams to film games. And then the Ref in chief reviews each ref in the games and gives them a score.
This score doesn’t need to be public, but can be used to decide who gets to referee final and for the referees own development.
The score can have a report attached to it, saying you handle these types of things well, these not so much. And it is not about a witchhunt to find the worst referee in the country, it is about being able to constructively criticise and praise our referees so they get better.
They do it in Rugby and Netball in this country, referees know how they rank, and know what they need to work on. In NRL referees are stood down for a weekend if their performance is below par, and rewarded with the Grand final if they do well.

I guess a major issue is time to review all games, three ideas I had
A/  is all games need to be recorded but the reviewer randomly selects a sample to review for each ref.

+ Random so you get a good view
– may only get really good or really bad game from an official

B/ The head referee in each region reviews the games

+ Every game gets reviewed
– Some of the referees in chiefs in some regions are less qualified then the actual refs (a cavaet to that is watching on video almost anyone could review as you don’t have to view game in real time)

C/ Peer review – Referees review each others performance

+ Not only is one referee being assessed, but the other referee is learning by watching someone elses take, could lead to greater consistency
-Referees job becomes a bit bigger (I am sure for better referees people would pay more for their services and a review session is added to their pay)

I don’t know these are just some thoughts I had, I would be interested in others opinions. Even if they are just Azzy77 you are a pillock these ideas are the most ridiculous thing I ever heard…….

I would like to end by saying I appreciate the work all referees put in, (even if sometimes I yell things to the contrary, just heat of the moment I am sorry) Keep up the good work, and please don’t take this as a personal attack, just a suggestion for improvement

The event rules also state

If the game is tied at the end of regulation time, a five-minute overtime period shall be played
immediately after an intermission of three minutes.

It doesn’t give the referees the prerogative to extend the game time, only reduce it.
Although I shouldn’t really complain, Thunder scored the game winning goal after the 5 minutes had expired.

Aston you realise the asterix in an expletive in text is meant to censor it right? Its not some sort of youth hip way of writing it while still containing all the letters.

Unless of course you meant Fruck?

I not that the Auckland club has a schedule of suspensions that are given, I guess this means players can know what they are up against when going to tribunal, much like NRL judiciary.

http://aiha.org.nz/admin/senior-suspension-schedule.aspx%5B/url:182kjigt%5D

On that spitting is a 10 game, and swinging stick is 5.
Is it worth the NZIHL having a schedule like this, to avoid accusations of bias for bans?

I wouldn’t spit, but if I did I would like to know that the tribunal who hypothetically doesn’t like me, can make my ban longer than some one they do like.

I also wonder how did Challis get the spit out of his helmet without getting himself through his cage, I also understand he was involved in similar incident in Worlds….so prior offences should be taken into account.

I think the length of the season needs to be taken into account when setting bans. In NHL you play like a million games so a 10 game suspension is long but not the whole season. If you got 10 game in NZIHL you miss pretty much the whole season.

Thats why i think it is dangerous to have automatic suspensions, 1 game in NZIHL is a 1/16th of the season. In NHL its like 1/120th or something so far less of punishment.