“Four eyes see better than two”. I guess. Yeah, I think so. They should, right? That’s why I wrote the headline for this IIHF piece. Click here or just read it after the jump.
STOCKHOLM – Swedish Elitserien announced that it will be running trials of the two-referee system. All in all, 18 games will be refereed by two refs in January, in preparation for next season. Tonight, the testing has started with the game Farjestad vs. Mora (4-2).
The NHL has had it for six seasons, the Finns had it already in 1998, and held their ground for four seasons as the only European country – but then gave up even if the system helped them get rid of the hooking and grabbing. But now, the Finnish SM-liiga has decided that 32 games in January will be operated with a four-man system. The Finns already played 56 regular season games using the system in the autumn.
As the 2008 IIHF World Championships will most likely be refereed with the two-referee system, the Swedish Elite League wanted to speed up its own adoption process to see how it would work in Sweden. Recent criticism against the referees probably also helped in the decision-making.
“We had another trial in the preseason but now we want to take the next step and do some more testing in games that count,” says Tommy Topel, the league’s director of hockey operations.
The purpose of the trial is to study and analyse a possible adoption of the system, but also to give the Swedish referees and players chance to prepare themselves for the system that will be used in the upcoming major tournaments.
“The clubs, the league, the federation and the referees all agreed that we should do the trial, and they all agreed that the time is now,” says Peter Andersson, the league’s director of officiating.
He is also positive about the trial, and the two referee system, in general. “This is the next step if we want to keep up with the rest of them. The game is so fast today that the referee has to position himself right all the time to be able to make just calls,” he says.
One of the trial games, Farjestad vs. Mora, was played tonight with Ulf Ronnmark and Christer Larking as the referees. Ronnmark and Larking also form the Swedish duo that will referee games in the IIHF World U20 Championships in the Czech Republic next week.
Ronnmark is looking forward to the experience: “It’s going to be fun to try the two-referee system in the Swedish Elite League regular season games. From my perspective, the Nordic Trophy preseason experience highlights the advantages the system has for a referee, and hopefully for the game as well.
“A referee should basically always be in a position where he can make as fair a call as possible, in any situation, but today’s hockey is so fast and is based on quick transitions from defence to offence that the traditional one referee two linesmen system has problems to keep up.”
With the exception of the game this week, the rest of the trial will take place in 18 games in January, with each Elitserien team playing three games with the new system.