Is it a good strategy for coaches to complain about officiating during the playoffs?

D

Dewman

New member
It's that time of year again and it just seems like every year there are coaches trying to sway the officials by calling them out when they talk to the media. We all remember Michel Therrien last year. Brian Burke is usually one who does it, but obviously this year he is not in the playoffs. So far Vineault is complaining about snow showers to Luongo (really, is that the best you got), Keenan about goalie interference (nice try, but good no call in OT), Hitchcock about cheating on faceoffs (probably true, but we all know the best faceoffers cheat). All this after one game.

Is this a good strategy or does it hurt your team in the end? Refs are unbiased of course (insert jokes here), does it really affect them? Or in the end does it make the coach just look like a whiner??
NIPS... really... huh, you learn something new everyday. I have to say though, I've never seen it called and I've seen a lot of snow showers. I hope it never gets called too, because that seems weak to me.
viphockey... The faceoff comment... I believe Hitcock's comment was that everyone cheats at faceoffs, but Detroit is better at it. Which makes me wonder why he brings it up. Just tell your players to cheat. I remember one of the best faceoff guys, Mike Eastwood, was THE biggest cheater ever. But that is why he was good. You don't get good at faceoffs without cheating a little. I know Kris Draper is good at them, and he is a big cheater. Even I can tell that, and I really don't understand the faceoff rules that well.
 
While I definitely see your point about it backfiring, the general idea is that, by calling officials out, in the next game the officials will be less likely to call questionable calls against your team. Basically, you're using public opinion to sway the ref into being sympathetic to your team, because he doesn't want to be called a jackass in the media when one too many of his could-go-either-way calls goes against your team.
 
Depends on what the complaints are and how far the coach chooses to take them. It is the playoffs and every coach realizes some things must be tolerated for the better of the game in the playoffs but to get a ref (and more important to get those 20,000 unofficial refs) to be at least thinking about those situations can have its benefits. The downside is the potential to piss off the refs, complaining in the media has been known to backfire and result in the refs calling things on your team they might have let go. It is a fine line, guys like Keenan likely get little sympathy from the refs because he runs his mouth too much and has been known to dirty up games himself, refs know he has sent guys out to run other goalies or their star players in the past. As for the cheating on faceoffs....here is an idea....teach your guys how to do it too. Pretty simple and likely a complaint that falls on deaf ears. Same with the snow showers, while it is technically a penalty it also is almost never called, return the favor and suggest to the other goalie that he tell his guys to stop unless he wants to keep getting what your guys are giving.
 
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