Off Wing Opinion: The Trouble With Mick McGeough

Off Wing Opinion: The Trouble With Mick McGeough:

I don’t know what’s left to say about Mick McGeough’s blown call on Friday night that cost the Oilers at least a point that Jes Gőlbez hasn’t already compiled at Hockey Rants.

As it turns out, the online petition to relieve McGeough of his duties already has 800+ signatures.

McGeough is far from a perfect ref, but name one that is. Mistakes happen in hockey — goals score when players make mistakes, teams win when the other team makes more mistakes than your team does. Referees make mistakes; linesmen make mistakes.

Hockey is, ultimately, a game of mistakes, of limiting mistakes, of capitalizing on them.

Right now, McGeough is the donkey — and deservedly so. But it’s being blown out of proportion, as it always is, because now, every time he sneezes, it shows up on TSN twelve times in super-slo-mo and Bob McKenzie throws off some cute one liner about it. And that’ll continue until they get bored or some new donkey is annointed to make fun of, while more significant mistakes by refs that aren’t currently being declared “league clown” are ignored.

So it goes.

Five years ago, we’d have been having this same discussion — only we’d swap out Mick’s name for Kerry Fraser. Of course, Fraser is still in the league, and trust me, he’s still a LOT less popular in some arena’s than Mick McGeough is today. Ditto Rob Shick.

Heck, I was in the arena for Steve Walkom’s first visit to San Jose. It was maybe his second or third game in the NHL, and it was less than memorable. For the next couple of years, fans who found out he was coming to ref a came brought signs asking for donations for the Walkom eyeglass fund. You know what? Walkom not only turned into a pretty good ref over time, he’s running the joint now.

Here’s something folks asking for McGeough to be fired or suspended should keep in mind: if you take McGeough out of the reffing rotation, who do you replace him with? Yes, that’s right — one of the part-timer’s wandering the NHL waiting for their shot.

Do you really — be honest with me here — really think the league is better off with Eric Furlatt or Mike Hasenfratz or Tom Kowal reffing your team’s game instead of McGeough? Because if he’s not reffing, all of the more junior (and/or less capable) refs get bumped up the depth chart — just like what happens when your first line center goes down and gets replaced by a guy from your AHL team. Does that EVER make your team better?

UPDATE: Be sure to make your donations to the Craig MacTavish Relief Fund.

There are times when MacTavish needs to stop being such a freaking player. He’s in management now. Did he have the right to jump down McGeough’s throat for the blown call? sure. But he went over the top, and deserved that call. His reaction was very close to the infamous “have another donut” from a previous era — and so MacTavish deserved that fine. that fine wasn’t over complaining about the mistake — it was about a lack of professionalism in doing so.

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