Junior Ontario Hockey

Now it's been a while since the season ended (for some of us longer than others) but I gotta say I'm still bothered by the poor judgment and lack of professionalism shown by a certain referee.

Tonight I am enjoying a Canada Day concert in Sarnia with some friends when I see this ref from this league walking by - I make a light-hearted joke about him being the worst ref ever (true) loud enough that he could hear, but all in fun - people say stuff like that to refs all the time - thought he was laughing it off then this guy is in my face like he wants to throw down in the middle of hundreds if not thousands of people in the park. It shouldn't surprise me I guess as it's no different then the way he acts when he's on the ice all the time - chirpin' players, coaches and fans in the crowd - acting as if he's the toughest guy in the world with his snug size XXXL striped sweater and his little whistle. How many games was he banned from refereeing because of complaints against him? Only ref I've ever seen call 3 mouth-guard penalties against one team in two games in a row.

I was nothing but cordial all season to the refs at our games - brought those guys water, sharpened their skates when they asked and anything else they needed, I got them. Honestly, refs and umps take heat from teams and fans, that's not going to change so if you can't handle the heat, hang up the blades.

I know a lot of team staff, players, fans, refs and the league read this stuff on this forum - I don't want to put this refs name on here but I will say his name starts with a P and ends with an R and it also has an A, L, M, & E. The OHA allowing this guy on the ice is a joke.

Oh and the funniest thing he said tonight was that he's "not going to put up with my yappin' on the internet anymore" ............Oops.

Seriously though, Palmer needs to grow up and get thicker skin. If he can't take someone jokingly saying "hey, there's the worst ref ever" then they probably shouldn't be doing the job. I joke around the same way with every ref I run into off the ice. Somes, Cox, Geene, and Bowen have certainly never got confrontational over a joke. It was pretty pathetic really.

To add to that, I'm not sure what exactly "I'm not putting up with your yappin on the internet anymore" even means. Is he just not going to read it? Maybe he shouldn't if it hurts his feeling so much.

No, that's why I laughed so hard when he said it.

IIRC, a memo of sorts came out from the league some years back about people associated with teams and stuff they put on the internet. I'm wondering if he (the ref in question) means he plans to put in a complaint to either the referees association or to the league about comments made here with the expectation that something will be done to Mike. Just a thought. Not sure if anything can come of a complaint by a referee about such things happening; guess we'll have to wait it out and see.

Bring it on - I gave my notice (in October) that I would be leaving the Predators after this past season and I have. So nothing they can do there. Is the OHA going to make it a rule that fans can't voice their opinions at games too? Not likely.

Palmer is terrible, Cox is not much, better and Somes seems to be on the same bandwagon, but Palmer takes the cake, he is a complete moron/hothead posing as a tough guy which means he probly has a tiny you know what. Alot of the Western Conference ref's I believe have a rooting value in some of the teams and are very biased with their calls. It's time the OHA stepped up and suspended some officials for their poor efforts.

Did not realize that you weren't returning to the Preds this coming season ... but now that I think about it I might have heard/read something about it.

And if you are just a fan voicing your opinion ... well depending on what you say, you could perhaps find yourself kicked out of a rink. It doesn't seem to happen much at hockey that I've noticed but I have seen it on a number of occassions at lacrosse games here in Sarnia and around the province. Not sure if that means lacrosse fans are more rabid and vocal with their opinions.

Luckily I find paint drying more interesting then lacrosse - it's not for a lack of trying - maybe if we had a competitive team around here.

Sorry to hear you don't enjoy it. As for being competitive - well consider that we have been getting younger and younger over the past 3 years, it's been a challenge. Sometimes it's about more than the "W" although I must admit it was easier to watch the team when they played .500 or better and made the playoffs. I think this year's team had the potential to do so.

Sorry for veering off, now back to hockey talk!!

There's no way a fan is getting kicked out of a rink over something said on the internet. I'd like to see them try.

Especially when you're chirping a ref - no one cares what they think.

I watch a ton of lacrosse (haven't been out to the junior B west though) and while many places have fans that are more vocal than many hockey crowds, I've yet to see anyone ejected. But I also find lacrosse officiating vastly superior to hockey officiating in Ontario -- the refs are far more tolerant and much better at communicating with players.

It takes a certain temperment to be a ref. Sounds like this guy might not have the right temperment.

Then you need to see some Jr B west lacrosse games cause there are a few refs there that should turn in their whistle. I've seen lacrosse fans tossed from games both here in Sarnia as well as other cities (in other years, none this year). On some occassions, the police have been called. Sometimes they (the police) don't do much like the time the Pacers played up in Owen Sound and the refs tossed some Sarnia bench personnel who were then attacked by some "fans" from the home crowd. It got nasty partly because the refs didn't have the balls to settle things down before it got out of hand and arena staff would not remove home fans from behind the visitors bench. The arena staff said that those fans weren't really doing anything bad (not that they saw but I saw plenty) and the police said it was up to the arena staff to deal with unruly fans. The oolice just made sure that our team made it safely to the bus but didn't address anything by the home team fan-atics.
At the end of one game this season, both benches were rather vocal with each other and a number of players were a bit "hot under the collar". With under two minutes to go, the ref called the game. Oh yeah, during that same game the away team fans parked themselves behind the home bench and because of their behaviour, the referee had them move. They were reluctant to do so but the referee (who I think is the chief of referees) insisted that they move. They did, finally, but not without a lot of mouthing off. I believe the referee has the authority to have a fan removed from the arena - if they have the balls to do so. Some of the current crop seem to keep a pretty good handle on things but there are some arenas ....