IIHF apologizes (not really) for officiating that sunk Canada

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As everyone knows, if there’s one thing we Canadians do more than play or watch hockey, it’s apologize.

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“Sorry” is one of the most used words in our vocabulary.

We’re sorry for almost getting in someone’s way at the grocery store and sorry for having our foot stepped on when we do.  We’re sorry for the natural body act of sneezing, sorry for being too full to finish our meal, sorry for not hearing someone mumble to us.

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I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I’ve apologized to the family cat.

In what seems like a low count, a study done in 2023 determined that Canadians say “sorry” approximately nine times a day.

And sometimes we even mean it.

When Canada was eliminated at the world junior hockey championship, heartbroken assistant captain Calum Ritchie apologized for letting Canadian hockey fans down while fighting back tears.

The following day, Hockey Canada’s senior VP Scott Salmond did too, albeit with less of Ritchie’s emotion.

To open the Q and A portion of Sunday’s news conference at the Canadian Tire Centre, I gave International Ice Hockey Federation president Luc Tardif his chance.

Knowing he was born in Trois-Rivières, Que., I figured he might want to apologize, on behalf of the IIHF, for the tournament’s horrendous officiating.

Hey, I know Canada had discipline issues throughout its short five-game appearance, particularly in the loss to the U.S.

With a total of 113 penalty minutes for an average of 22.36 per game, Canada was easily the most penalized team in the tournament (Czechia was next with 85 PIMs through six games, a 14.10 average, heading into its bronze-medal showdown with Sweden) and, for the most part, deserved everything it was given.

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But I specifically asked Tardif about three calls/non-calls during the loss to Czechia in the quarter-final that I believe led to Canada’s early exit:

The first-period kneeing major and game misconduct Cole Beaudoin received on an open-ice hit that should have been a two-minute minor, if anything, which was particularly brutal because the referees reviewed the tape and still kicked him out;

The minor for kneeing that was given to Andrew Gibson with 2:27 left in the third, which was even worse because it was a textbook takeout — he stayed in his tracks and did not stick out his knee, but did (gasp!) finish his check — and it came in the dying minutes of a tied elimination game when referees generally put their whistles away;

And the most flagrant foul of the tournament that occurred earlier in the final period — after Canada had tied the game and had all the momentum — when Czech forward Miroslav Holinka blatantly drove winger Gavin McKenna’s head into the glass.

There was no call on that one, which was alarming given that all sports are taking great strides to eliminate head shots and, as I said to Tardif, the only two people of the 20,000 in the building who didn’t apparently didn’t see it were the the guys on the ice wearing red armbands.

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Your turn, Luc. Care to apologize?

“The player, the referee, that’s a simple man, they can do mistakes,” replied Tardif, with a promising start to his long-winded and-slightly edited to spare-you answer. “We try to bring technology (with video and everything. … I was a hockey player and sometimes I was not happy about the referees, but now I’m on the other side. I have to protect them. We have to make them better. We have to find solutions technically to see if there is (a way for) no mistakes. But we cannot be on the ice or after to judge. You cannot play back the game. We’ve got the supervisors, they sit down after to try to make it better. (They) go through all the games (and say) you made a mistake, but you cannot come back on that.

“If you want me to apologize, I can do it, ” he continued, again with promise, “but first, I’m not on the ice. I’m not a referee, and I want to protect the referee. I want to protect the referee, get better, and analyze what is good or not. That’s like the player. So that means, for a lot of games, sometimes that’s discipline, and sometimes that’s maybe, like you said, a bad call, maybe, but that’s only human people … and you cannot come back on the result of that, that’s on the game.

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“So if you want me to apologize, I can do it,” he said, and this time, he’s going to do it, right? “But believe me, at the moment, (performance at this tournament) is part of the selection (process) for the referees to go to the Olympic Games. So everything they do, they’ve got a complete program of survey, and they’ve got a lot of pressure from the public. They’ve got a lot of pressure. But we do everything to make them better and also try to help them, technically and also that we have to play that game. We can go watch the video all the time because that’s a long game. But what I want is to make sure that we do everything to have the benefit.

“And sometimes they can play a bad game like the players can play a bad game.”

Because they included a “but”, both of Tardif’s attempts to apologize were empty, like he was saying sorry to a chair after stubbing his toe on it.

At least there was the admission, sort of, that referees Riku Brander and Sean MacFarlane had a bad game — and no, I will not suggest any type of conspiracy just because the countries they’re from just happened to square off for gold Sunday night.

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One other thing — in his opening address, while he was (figuratively) taking a bow and patting the IIHF on the back for a tremendous tournament, Tardif said:

“For people from Canada, you are a little bit sad, but on our side, it doesn’t matter what happened. The level of the competition was incredible. And I think today, for the final and the bronze medal, we’re going to have an outstanding performance by the players.”

He was correct about the level of competition and the performance of the players, but so wrong to say it doesn’t matter what happened in the controversial quarter-final.

As good this world junior championship was, it would have been a hell of lot better if Canada had been in the final.

And despite all the shortcomings of the Canadians, they just might have been had they not been sunk by the officiating in their last game.

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