TIME OUT!

Last week, this column focused on the refereeing problem that plagues the Concordia Intramural Ice Hockey League.
There are several reasons that the games, especially in the second half of the season were basically out of control, but only one of them is the officiating.
On the other side of the spectrum is the attitudes of the players in all five divisions.
Regardless of skill level, the players seem to think that they are NHL calibre athletes, and that they should be allowed to get away with murder.
Sticks are constantly up in front of the nets, and in the last two weeks of the season alone, there was at least one incident of a player leaving the arena in an ambulance when he was driven into the boards and consequently broke his collar bone.
Even more disturbing, there was an actual fist fight between a player and an official.
From what we can gather, it started after the player -a substitute who was not regularly part of the league- attacked the official, who proceeded to turn around and beat the daylights out of the aggressor.
These things are not freak occurrences; they were bound to happen, and will continue to happen unless the league cracks down on the players.
The players do not respect the officials and therefore feel as if they have a license to do as they please on the ice.
Part of the reason is their attitudes, and part of the reason is the referees’ inexperience and ineptitude.
The players need to know who’s boss on the ice.
The way to do this is to set the rules straight right from the get-go, and make those rules very harsh.
Already, if a player throws a punch directly in the face of a another player, he is automatically given a penalty and thrown out of the game.
The league should follow a similar track with stick infractions like blatant slashes and high sticks.
If someone wants to be a cowboy, send them off into the sunset, because they certainly should not be on the ice.
But the key remains getting a third official on the ice.
With a two-linesmen and one-referee system, the officials will be better equipped to handle these situations, and should be able to better control the games.

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