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As I pause to reflect on the Washington Capitals-Philadelphia Flyers game 7, the decision by the referees to “put away the whistles” was a horrible idea and is an indication that the league is headed to the pre-lockout era, an era where hooking, holding and interference took over the NHL.

Referees should not have “discretion” when deciding whether or not to call a penalty. In my opinion, a penalty is a penalty, be it in the first five minutes of the game or the dying seconds in the third period. The Washington Capitals, had the officiating been consistent, might have actually won in regulation if the “tone” of the penalty calling set up in period 1 would have been maintained. Again, I’m not an advocate of the referees setting a “tone” when some calls will be made in some circumstances and not in others. The tone set at the start of game 7 was everything was getting called, like it should be. If there’s an infraction in the rulebook, there must be a penalty assigned to the offending player, no ifs, ands or buts about it.

It was obvious nothing was getting called in the third period. Off the top of my head, a Capitals player blatantly slashed Vaclav Prospal’s stick so hard it caused it to shatter and Washington regained control of the puck and got it out of their end. The lockout was supposed to address the need to increase offense and limit these sort of infractions by simply enforcing what’s already in the rules: in this case, you are not allowed to use your stick to slash an opposing player. But, there was no call on this play.

Philadelphia’s tying goal involved a forward pushing the Capitals’ defenseman right into goalie Cristobal Huet. Huet was helpless after he stopped the initial shot and the Flyers scored on a wide-open net. That’s goaltender interference, plain and simple. Again, no call. Why not? Simple: Because the referees decided that there would no longer be any penalties called late in the game, despite the fact they were calling everything in the first period. The old school logic is “Let the players play.” What about winning with honour? Does that count for anything? If you need to cheat to score a goal, as happened here, the players haven’t decided anything: The referees have.

So, when the game headed to overtime, both teams were playing with the assumption they could get away with anything. The Capitals were guilty of at least two blatant tripping infractions before Tom Poti got called for two minutes for his trip against a Flyers forward. Now what’s interesting about that call is not the debate on whether or not it was tripping, because it clearly was, but why all of a sudden, after letting everything go in the third period, did the refs decide it was time to assess a minor penalty to Poti?

Simple: Because the referees were “embarrassed.” See, the two trips prior to Poti’s were blatant, and should have been called, but the refs decided not to call anything. The problem though, is the unwritten rule not to make it so blatant multiple times that you force the referee’s hand to make a call against you. So that’s what happened...and the Flyers scored on the ensuing power play and moved on to round 2.

But these unwritten “rules”, “codes” etc, whatever you want to call it, needs to stop. And I thought that was precisely what started to happen after the lockout, but it’s reverting back to the days of trapping, clutch & grab hockey. The irony of “letting the players decide” the outcome of the Capitals-Flyers match ended up having the referee decide he’s been “embarrassed” long enough, in short, putting the outcome of the match in his hands and calling something that wasn’t called earlier.

In other words, doing a horrible job officiating.