‘CRAZY PART OF THE SEASON’
Vermette slash seems out of character
Retired NHL referee Kerry Fraser called it the “crazy part of the season.”
It’s that time of the year when the games become tighter, the wins and losses start to matter more and every little penalty draws an earth-is-falling reaction from the offending team.
That might explain why Anaheim Ducks forward Antoine Vermette — whom Fraser called “such a great kid” — slashed a linesman after losing a faceoff on Tuesday night.
At the time, the Ducks were clinging to a 1-0 third-period lead against the Minnesota Wild, with two very big points on the line. Vermette, who had scored just once in the last 21 games, was having a miserable night in the faceoff circle. His 35.3 per cent success rate was his lowest of the season.
For a faceoff specialist — Vermette’s 62.4 per cent success rate tops all players who have taken more than 35 faceoffs — losing draw after draw was likely worse than his scoring drought. And so when Mikko Koivu won for the sixth time in seven attempts on a puck that Vermette didn’t even seem to try for, Vermette stared briefly at linesman Shandor Alphonso and then slashed him on the back of the legs.
Vermette was immediately given a 10-minute misconduct for abuse of an official. According to NHL rules, he would receive a 10- or three-game ban depending on the how the league characterizes the level of abuse.
“Historically, this is the time of year where the pressure starts to mount up a little up on teams that need points to get into the playoffs,” Fraser, who retired in 2010 after calling more than 2,000 NHL games, told Postmedia News on Wednesday.
“They get grumpy and they get nasty. Every year at this point of the year, we would have to work our tails off because they were fighting each other and flat out miserable.
“The first thing they say when you call a penalty against them is, ‘Hey, this is a big game! We’re fighting for our lives!’”
It’s not just Vermette. Arizona Coyotes defenceman Anthony DeAngelo was suspended for three games last month for shoving an official. Around this time a year ago, The Calgary Flames’ Dennis Wideman cross-checked an unsuspecting linesman. Though Wideman initially received a 20-game suspension, a neutral arbitrator ruled it was not intentional and reduced the sentence to 10 games.
While Fraser says it would be “a reach” to suggest more players are abusing officials than ever before or that the overturned Wideman ruling had put a target on officials’ backs, he said players “have to be made to understand that you do not touch an official.”
At the same time, Fraser acknowledged linesmen have to be accountable in these situations. It’s one thing if Vermette was simply losing draw after draw because he was having an uncharacteristically bad night in the circle. It’s another if Vermette believes the linesman was dropping the puck unfairly.
Either way, Fraser said he believes the situation could have been avoided with some communication from both sides.
“As a referee, we always liked the puck down. A moving puck is our best friend,” Fraser said. “We understand today the importance of faceoff wins. Vermette is one of the best at it, and when his stats aren’t up to his standard, it doesn’t bode well for a player. He takes a lot of pride it in and if he feels he’s being unfairly treated in the faceoff circle, they need to communicate with the linesman.
“I’ve seen (retired linesman) Ray Scapinello instead of throwing a player out of the faceoff, say, ‘Listen, I want you to take this faceoff. I don’t want to throw you out. Now please put your stick down and let me drop this fairly.’ Those are the things you need to work on with a player.”
Of course, we don’t know exactly what happened between Vermette and the linesman that night. It could be Alphonso had explained to Vermette why he wasn’t winning many faceoffs. Maybe Vermette wasn’t even mad at the linesman, but rather himself for continually losing, and simply lashed out at the linesman without thinking. Maybe it wasn’t even about the faceoffs. Fraser isn’t so sure. “Antoine Vermette is a heck of a nice guy, and I say that without saying players can’t flip and snap, but there is generally a build up to it,” he said.
“It’s not a flash flood or a lightning bolt that hits in the forest. I’m almost suggesting that both the players and the linesman are both at fault here for not saying, ‘What do you want me to do here,’ and avoiding a situation where there’s a buildup and then a whack.”