Stephane Auger vs. Alex Burrows

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

scramboni

Verified Trader
Joined
Apr 22, 2009
Messages
966
Reaction score
0
Location
Abbotsford, BC
Thought I would start a discussion, here are my thoughts:

Lets chalk one up for the NHL referee Stephane Auger and how he took out a personal vendetta against a player and his team to help decide the outcome of a professional hockey game. What an unfortunate turn of events, as one period it looks to be a close hockey game with Alexandre Burrows chasing an extremely rare feat (getting 3 hat-tricks in four games), the next period being given phantom calls against himself and his line-mates. What a complete joke, if the Canucks end up missing the playoffs by a point or two I know what game to look back on.

Tonight Stephane Auger, a National Hockey League referee, made a point of running into Alex Burrows before the anthems and said he was going to get him back for a previous incident. Which incidentally was against the Nashville Predators in which Jared Smithson was tossed for a hit from behind on Alex Burrows, which he may have embellished a little. Going into the third in a 2-2 hockey game, Auger assessed 5 penalties to the Canucks, with at least 2 being complete head scratchers.

As a Canucks fan and supporter do not take what I say as me being biased, or that I'm some kind of referee hater. I usually don't blame a loss on reffing nor do the Canucks as a team, but just look at the post game comments as Burrows is almost in tears as he talked to reporters. I know the NHL only brings the best referees into its collective and with that being said refs should should not carry events from previous games with them into the next game. I hope the NHL head office does not just brush this off as another minor incident and actually opens a formal investigation against the referee in question and deals with both parties accordingly. All I know is people paid good money to go to that game and got 2 periods of what they paid for, before the ref decided to make make it his own personal grudge match, and thats just sad.

-Tony
 
Last edited:
I made a similar post about horrid officiating about a month or so ago and was largely slagged for being a Habs homer. I hope you get better treatment. Here's that post:

Last night, with 5:52 remaining in the third period, the Canadiens scored a goal to tie the game 3-3. The puck was loose in a goal-mouth scramble, and Scott Gomez pushed it over the line. The red light came on, the crowd roared with cheers.

But wait! Enter Chris Lee.

The last time a referee called for the end of a play in Montreal that quickly, Bret Hart punched Vince McMahon in the face.

At some point the NHL must re-visit the way it handles video replay with regards to the timing of a puck crossing the line, the referee blowing his whistle, and a loose puck. If a puck is loose and the referee is out of position, thus unable to make the correct call, why should the call stand? What is the point of investing in all this technology, having all these cameras at all angles of the ice, of having a "war room" in Toronto where League officials can review a play in order to make sure that the correct call is made, if all of it can be overturned by what the League casually refers to as "human judgment"? Why bother with this idea of "getting the call right" if the ability to overturn the wrong call in such circumstances is flatly denied?

Far too often this season we have seen the wrong call. Brad May was denied a goal on a play that was so blatantly obvious it hurts. Goals have been scored when play has continued after a puck has hitting the netting above the glass. So-called "quick whistles" have denied good goals. Even whistles that you don't hear until after the puck is in the net have denied ostensibly good goals, because if the ref intended to blow the whistle that's good enough. There is something evidently wrong with the way the referees are calling games in the NHL.

The NHL also needs to introduce a public accountability system for its officials. Two years ago, NFL referee Ed Hochuli horribly botched a call that affected the outcome of a game. Read the details here. Hochuli admitted his mistake and the NFL held him accountable, downgrading his referee status and making him ineligible to officiate playoff games that season. Hochuli is one of the NFL's most well-known and -respected referees, a 20-year veteran that has worked a pair of Super Bowls. But he was admittedly in the wrong on that play, and the League made sure that he was disciplined for the error. At this time, no such system exists in the NHL. Players and coaches are under threat of a severe fine if they in any way, shape, or form criticize officials for their work. The League does not discuss mistakes that are made on the ice. If the referees are taken to task, we do not hear about it. This must change, for the integrity of the game.
 
I saw the highlights (or should I say lowlights) this morning on Sportscentre. I couldn't believe the two calls on Burrows, but then I thought, what's new. I can't believe half the things they call anyway in this "post-lockout" NHL. The real kicker came when Burrows relayed what had occurred in the warm-up. True or not, the NHL must address Burrows comments.
 
A bias ref in the NHL and this is suppose to be news??!?!? Yea right. Like has not been happening post lock out.

Burrows is going to lose. When you fight city hall, you usually lose and I think his post game remarks will hit his wallet.
 
If Auger said "I'm going to get back at you" to Burrows, then his calls were definitely pre-meditated. And if a referee makes pre-meditated calls, he has no place in the NHL.

I watched the last half of the game and at least the Interference call on Burrows was completely out of left field.

and yeah, I'm betting Burrows somehow gets fined out of this.
 
The game last night was a poorly officiated game.

The thing that bothers me most in the NHL is that the Cgy/Van game was if you weren't bleeding it wasn't called. Two nights later that Nsh/Van game was if you breathed on another player, it was called. The inconsistency is what is the most harmful.

In addition to this costing Burrows money, this story going 'public' will cost the Canucks 4 points by the end of the season. Umpires have stated publicly that if you show up/complain about another umpire, they all know hear it and you are watched [even] more carefully. I don't see how NHL officials are any different.

Kevin
 
When you embarrass a ref you have to expect some form of retribution especially when the league refuses to do anything about divers. Got to question a coach using Burrows in this crucial situation when he knows there is payback waiting on the ice.
Ask Sean Avery... its open season on him...he gets mugged all the time yet can't draw a penalty call.
Problem for Burrows has only just begun. Even if the league hits him hard Auger's colleagues are going to make his life miserable.
 
I can't imagine why Vigneault would want a guy that's scored 8 goals in his last 4 games on the ice.
 
I personally think that Auger should be fired if he did make those comments but doubt he'll get nothing more than a slap on the wrist. It will end up being Burrows that gets the crappy end of the stick for his comments and that's unfortunate.
 
pssteve said:
Got to question a coach using Burrows in this crucial situation when he knows there is payback waiting on the ice.
Click to expand...


Because Burrows is lighting up the score sheet. he has 8 goals in 4 games. 2 games with hat tricks.

I really hope the NHL does something with this mess. but we all the the track record and only Burrows and the Canucks will pay.

1st he pulls this in Detroit....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nZpCHtQYYI&feature=player_embedded

now his crap with burrows.

Heres Burrows interview after the game. and you can see the bogus interference call during the game. at 8 seconds you can see Auger talking with Burrows. around 23 seconds is the interference penalty. :|:|:|

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unNPFNXNsJ0&feature=player_embedded
 
Once again, the NHL will let the refs walk away without investigation, as if they were all holier than thou!

Maybe it's time we introduced robots as refs. They might miss a lot of calls, but at least they'll be evenly ineffective.
 
pssteve said:
When you embarrass a ref you have to expect some form of retribution especially when the league refuses to do anything about divers. Got to question a coach using Burrows in this crucial situation when he knows there is payback waiting on the ice.
Ask Sean Avery... its open season on him...he gets mugged all the time yet can't draw a penalty call.
Problem for Burrows has only just begun. Even if the league hits him hard Auger's colleagues are going to make his life miserable.
Click to expand...

Coaches should not worry about this problem because the ref is SUPPOSE to call it down the middle, instead they have their own pre-determined bias. At least one ref, Tim Donaghy out'ed the refs in the NBA.
 
I'm never one to blame officials for a loss, but this is just outrageous. That "interference" call on Burrows was one of the worst calls I've ever seen. That referee should be suspended for the rest of the season, if not more. I don't care what kind of a rep a player has, a referee can't have a personal vandetta against one player when he is reffing two teams in a game. That is complete and utter BS
 
That's some seriously BS right there those calls on Burrows.

I think that's just unacceptable for officials to do stuff like that. If you're going to be doing stuff like that, get out of the NHL already.

For that person that said why would the Nucks coach be using Burrows in a situation like that, because the kid is amazing, he's good, he's lighting up the scoresheet like crazy, and also he was being given the opportunity to pull of the amazing accomplishment of possibly scoring 3 hat tricks in 4 games
 
DXFlyers said:
I just went back to the Flyers-Caps game where the Caps had a 9 minute PP because of Carcillo's punch to Bradley. Auger was the ref for that game as well:
http://espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=291205015

Now we all know Carcillo's infamous reputation, how good or bad is Burrows rep?
Click to expand...

I agree that both calls sucked against Burrows and that the league should do something but are you seriously trying to argue that what Carcillo did was right? Burrows didnt do anything on either call Carcillo punched a guy in the face when he wasnt ready. There is a huge difference. Plus there are 2 refs in every game how do you know the other ref didnt call it?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
389,540
Messages
2,233,465
Members
4,151
Latest member
barchamb13
Back
Top