Thunder Bay Chill July 2019

I had my camera on hand at the Chill game over the weekend. The skies over the city have been very hazy due to the forest fires in the area. The colours weren't doing anything for me so i opted for black and white. The event lent itself to a 'journalistic' style so black and white seems to have fit the bill perfectly. The good guys won in exciting fashion and then signed auto-graphs for all the young fans. I hope the players felt like rock stars.

Dear NHL, 2 On Ice Referees Isn't Working

Too many referees on the ice still making bad calls.

Dear NHL,
I'm writing this letter in response to some of the questionable calls and non calls your referees made and did not make.

Please take the 2nd official off the ice and put him behind a tv so he can watch the same game the rest of us are watching.  Equip him with a headset and microphone.  Give the other ref the other headset.  No one else needs to hear what they're saying.  The 'tv ref' can than assist the on ice ref by telling him what's 'really' happening.

Examples are and not limited to:

"The puck is still clear.  The puck is in the net. A player behind you that you don't see just speared another player and the other player is now chasing him down.  There was no goalie contact.  There was goalie contact.  There was goalie contact but its not his fault - the dman cross checked him into the goalie.  That wasn't tripping.  That's a dive."  Etc Etc Etc.

This would easily clear up the animosity of fans vs refs.  If coaching staff are connected to assistants up in the box seats with headsets why can't the refs be?  I'm optimistic that the refs could get up to speed within a week.  Sure you'll need to make some rules and adjustments.

We take "TV Timeouts" for commercials on Tv, i don't think taking 30 seconds to review a play isn't too much to ask if its going to make and break the game.

Please get with the times.

Thank you.