Utah Puck Report: Thoughts On Abuse Of Officials

SALT LAKE CITY – My guess is that if you have social media, you have seen the video of a men’s league player appearing to push and then strike a referee at Utah’s Olympic Oval.

The offense was posted to Instagram by @hockeymomutah. You can watch the video here.

As I’m writing this article, the post has around 8,000 views and is climbing.

As a captain in the fire department, I’m tasked with disciplining grown men and women to help correct behavior. When it’s time to dish out discipline, you must make sure you have as much information as possible before making a judgment because, as the saying goes with conflict, there are three sides to the story: ours, theirs, and the truth.

I have spoken with players from both teams, fans in the stands, and the official, whom I have known for years.

I’ve also watched the video countless times.

I then formed a panel for this week’s episode of the Utah Puck Report. The panel has former referees Ben Wilner and Bill McCloud and former Portland Winterhawk and Utah Grizzly Mason Mannek. The panel discussed all of the information provided, and we all came to our own conclusions.

My conclusion is this.

All parties have some ownership, mistakes were made, but at no time is the attack that occurred to the official justified, reasonable or acceptable. There is no place for this in our game. The fact that this video is about to go viral is going to be a stain on the sport, and with Utah being under a microscope by worldwide NHL fans, the timing is pretty bad.

What’s worse is that seeing this will make someone thinking about becoming an official decide not to.

There will be a parent who was just about to sign their kid up for the first time, who might not now.

There is a place for fighting in hockey; it starts at Juniors; but most of us will never play in a game where fighting is allowed.

I suggest the ref get a 3-month suspension, and the player gets a 2-5-year ban from playing or coaching at any level. I explain my reasoning and how I came to this from my initial thought of 6 months for the official and a lifetime ban for the player on the show.

Have you seen the video? What do you think should happen? Let us know on Instagram @UtahPuckReport.