Tippett: Kings get `breaks on calls’ « LA Kings Insider
Question: What did you think of the officiating?
[TIPPETT:] If I told you what I really thought, I think it would cost me a lot of money.
“Having said that, let me tell you the nice version.” Presumably, now he’s going to tell us some version of his thoughts that don’t include the league or the refs being incompetent or corrupt. Because those are the things that “would cost [him] a lot of money”.
Personally, the whole — and I’ve talked about this in a lot of meetings with Don (Maloney), our general manger — the game is turning a little dishonest, and it’s embellishment by players. Because they know. When it’s done well, it’s very hard for the referees, very hard.
Ah, so the Kings are a bunch of divers, apparently. Which explains why the Kings got all those power play goals that won the game for them. Except, that didn’t happen. The Kings’ power play sucks.
Because if you fall down near the boards or you drop your stick or you throw your head back, you’re putting the referee in a very tough situation. [...] The referees have a hard job, and it makes the game dishonest.
I don’t see how it makes “the game” dishonest. Diving is against the rules. The refs call it when they see it, like last game when Brown clearly pretended to be hatcheted by Mike Smith.
If a team was constantly offsides as a strategy, would that make the game dishonest? Of course not, because the linesmen would call it. At least, the obvious instances of offsides. If it’s really, really close, sometimes they might miss one. But wait:
What if a team is constantly pushing the envelope and trying — well, not to be offsides actually, but — to be almost right on the line of being offsides? Isn’t that “dishonest”? The linesmen can’t tell if it’s offsides or not half the time.
That’s the team’s job. To be just close enough to offsides that they gain an edge, but not so offsides that they get called for it.
Or, let’s take hooking, or holding, or roughing, or charging, or elbowing. Why are the players always hooking (etc.) even though it’s against the rules? And why are the refs more often than not missing the call? Because the game is “dishonest”?
The whole game — in fact, every game where the rules are enforced by referees — is playing on the edge, on the border between legal and not. And the refs have to make a zillion judgment calls every game. Otherwise, you wouldn’t need refs.
And you know what else is dishonest?
Deking. That’s right, deking. When I taught my son how to deke, he said, “but dad, that’s A LIE!” And so it is. Fake-shots, fake passes, dekes, spinoramas, they’re all DISHONEST. And fun.
Kopitar got Smith to open his legs BY EMPLOYING DECEIT AND TRICKERY.
Go, Kings.
Diving is like every other infraction. It’s a penalty. The refs call it when they see it. The players employ diving up to the limit of what they believe is allowed, just as they employ hooking, slashing, elbowing, roughing, etc.
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Some posts the robot says are related, but I'll let you be the judge of that:
- EDM 2, LAK 1 (OT) — Post Game Bullets
- COL 3, LAK 1 — Post-Game Bullets (game 2)
- CHI 5, LAK 2 — Post-Game Bullets (game 1)
- LA Kings Game Log (2011-12)
- Stick a fork in me, I’m Doan! (post-game bullets)
- Tippett strikes sour note after Game 3 loss – The Globe and Mail
- Kings Take Game One, 4-2 (post-game bullets)
