Boston Bruins

Marchand On Officiating: ‘Get Rid Of Video’

Published

5 years ago

May 26, 2019

Boston Bruins star winger Brad Marchand has a solution for not letting officiating mar the Stanley Cup Playoffs and games going forward next season:

“Yeah get rid of the video reviews,” Marchand said abruptly as a reporter finished asking him how he’d fix the officiating in the playoffs.

As great as the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs have been, questionable calls or non-calls and what many perceive as bad officiating has too often dominated the headlines. Instead of celebrating the game and what arguably may be the most exciting postseason tournament in sports, fans, media, and even the players have found themselves talking about how officiating or a lack thereof has affected and at times, decided a series.

Many believe the five-minute major on Vegas Golden Knights forward Cody Eakin for a dangerous hit on Sharks captain Joe Pavelski in the third period of Game 7 in the first round lost the series for the Knights. Marchand seemed fine with the idea of just letting referees be human and make mistakes and is not a fan of allowing video to correct them because he fears it could be total chaos.

“That’s the problem,” Marchand said. “When you start bringing in all the video reviews, the ref’s are getting crucified and they’re out there just trying to do their jobs. You start taking it away from them little by little; then it’s going to escalate.

Now they’re going to want video review for pucks hitting the net or hand passes. So how much are you gonna take away from the refs? You start adding more video review, and it’s just going to snowball. So, the only way to do it is do video review on everything or nothing.”