Gentlemen,

I am a long-time hockey fan, and have been a season ticket holder for the Capitals since the 1990's (and a partial season plan holder prior to that). I have a suggestion, or at least a possibility for what to do regarding the violence, thuggery, what have you in playoff hockey.

Why not go to a three referee system?

I know that one of the complaints is that there aren't enough "good" referees now, so increasing the need by 50% seems to be counter-intuitive. But isn't it possible that the game is just so fast and there's so much going on that two referees (assisted by two linesmen) just aren't enough?

Here's how I imagine it. You keep one referee on each side of the red line (or blue line if you prefer), and the third acts as a rover and goes wherever the play goes. The one who stays on half of the ice is responsible for goals and goalie interference, plus whatever else they happen to see, but mainly goals and goalie interference. The rover is responsible for watching other things that are going on around the play. The referee from the back side of the ice is responsible for watching what is going on BEHIND THE PLAY!

It's instinctual to watch the puck and what's going on with it at any given moment. But to have someone who is specifically supposed to NOT watch the puck at all times means that there's less of an opportunity to pull shenanigans that aren't seen by the refs.

It's almost like in football, where each part of the officiating crew is assigned to watch something different, so that (most) everything gets seen. If you're responsible for NOT watching the puck, that frees you up to notice other things that are going on.

Maybe this would prevent headshots away from the puck, provide more consistency on goalie interference calls (as that, and goals, would be the only responsibility of that referee at any given moment), and so on.

I know it's not perfect, and you're potentially diluting a shallow pool, but think about how much changed after they went to a two referee system, and how players found they couldn't get away with stuff away from the play. Or think about how much the NBA changed when it went from a two referee system to a three referee system.

Anyway, just a thought. And as you are some of the most thoughtful hockey writers out there, I thought you might want to ruminate on it.

Keep up the good work.

Todd

Thanks to Todd for including me in his email. While I share his concern about some of the more recent incidents we've seen in NHL playoffs this season, I don't believe that adding another referee would have deterred any of the more egregious actions. Over and above the fact that adding another official would crowd the ice, I'm afraid it wouldn't get to the heart of the problem we're seeing right now.

Like many other observers of the game, I think the league made a real mistake when it declined to suspend Nashville Predators defenseman Shea Weber after he smashed Detroit Red Wings center Henrik Zetterberg's head into the plexiglass WWE-style during Game One of that Western Conference quarterfinal playoff series. Limiting Weber's punishment to a $2,500 fine seemed to send a pretty clear signal to coaches and players that the league would be easing up on discipline in the postseason. Given what we've seen since, beginning on Saturday with Ottawa's Matt Carkner attacking New York Rangers center Brian Boyle even as Boyle declined to defend himself, the thesis seems to have been borne out.

At the same time, I don't want anyone to think I'm delivering this judgment with a tone of high dudgeon. The fact is that I believe that this playoff has been the most exciting in recent memory. The play, at least in my estimation, has been incredibly intense, something that has been borne out by the increasing television ratings. And it wasn't lost on me that coverage of a hockey game was part of the intro on Sunday night's edition of SportsCenter. Not only did the program recap the entirety of Game Three of the Pens-Flyers series, it followed it up immediately with a complete segment featuring Steve Levy and Barry Melrose -- just the sort of attention that the league would have killed for back when ESPN was its cable television partner.

Like it or not, refereeing the NHL and policing on-ice discipline is an art, not a science. Use too heavy a hand, and the games will bog down into dueling power plays, something we saw frequently when the league returned from the lockout. In contrast, when you ease up too much, you get exactly what we've seen over the past week, with intense play escalating into something resembling street thuggery. To be honest, we've been very lucky that a player hasn't been more severely injured.

I don't envy the task at hand for NHL officials and league disciplinary czar Brendan Shanahan. In essence, they have to figure out how to keep a pot of water steadily simmering without boiling over onto the stove top. Crack down too hard, you'll spoil the flow of the game and the television viewers will find something else to watch. Ease up too much, and you'll get more UFC on ice.

So while I don't think adding another referee will solve the problem at hand, don't believe for a second that I don't wish that the solution was that simple.

I put that question and others to Marc Masferrer, a veteran journalist and persistent critic of Castro:

The Daily Caller (DC): What was your first reaction when you read about Guillen’s comments to Time?

Marc Masferrer (MM): My first thought was that it was typical Ozzie Guillen, talking nonsense about something he obviously knew nothing about, being provocative for the sake of being provocative. Unfortunately, there are many people who really do admire Fidel Castro, so it was not a stretch for me to believe Guillen really believed what he was saying. I also was struck by how insulting he had been to a group of people who through ticket sales, souvenir purchases, etc., will be paying a large part of his salary as manager of the Marlins. He had really stepped into it.

You can read more from Marc at his blog, Uncommon Sense.

And here are the odds on who will actually win the lottery, a team that after all could ultimately decided to deal the pick ...

The hometown Caps going off at 30-1 seems about right, though I like them to take down Boston, the defending champs, in Round One. In terms of value, I like Nashville, Philadelphia and Chicago. Odds on winning the Eastern and Western Conference are after the jump.

WFY: Are the “new” Mets uniforms (really the old Mets uniforms without the black) the best thing about the 2012 Mets? Do you prefer the classic pinstripes or the white “head spoon” home jersey? EM: While I am happy about the new “old” uniforms, there are some reasons to be interested in the 2012 Mets. They’ve moved the fences in and made sure they were painted with the traditional blue and orange color scheme. David Wright seems completely healthy as does Johan Santana. And seeing Lucas Duda in the lineup every day is potentially exciting. The kid has got a big bat — I watched him hit a pair of dingers on Saturday afternoon — and he has the potential to turn even routine fly balls into an adventure.

The rupture stems from a dustup in 2006 between Wang and then-Islanders General Manager Neil Smith. Most accounts agree on a broad outline of what happened: Smith, accustomed to doing things one way, started to chafe severely under what he saw as interference from a meddlesome owner. Wang, who understandably felt like he ought to have outsized influence over an asset he owned, wasn't happy that Smith didn't get along with the program. The conflict escalated, until Wang decided to show Smith the door after just a few weeks on the job.

When that happened, all Hell broke loose in the press, with Wang taking much of the incoming fire. That shouldn't have come as much of a shock. After all, Smith had contacts in the New York press back to his first stint with the Isles as a scout in the 1980s, contacts that he obviously tended to with frequency during his successful tenure as GM of the New York Rangers.

It was in the midst of that media firestorm that LaFontaine, then working as an unpaid senior advisor, headed for the exit. Which is where former General Manager Mike Milbury comes into the picture. Here's what he had to say about LaFontaine's departure to WSJ reporter Mike Sielski:

"Pat ran for the hills. Pat ran for cover," said Milbury, now an NHL analyst for NBC. "It was cowardly, and it was terrible. And if Charles was [ticked], I wouldn't blame him in the least." LaFontaine declined to respond to Milbury's comments.

I know that Milbury's bombastic style leads plenty of folks to call him a jerk, but can there be any doubt that his take is 100% on target? In business, especially when the stakes are high, it's important to know who your friends are. I don't pretend to know the mind of Charles Wang, but I can make a pretty good guess about how he saw LaFontaine after he left the team: when the spotlight was the brightest and the organization was under attack, LaFontaine looked for a lifeboat.

LaFontaine took a look at the situation and decided he had to do what he needed to do in order to take care of himself and preserve his reputation -- and who can blame the man for that? As I recall, that's essentially the same thing he did before the start of the 1991-92 NHL season.

In those days, the Islanders were as dreadful on the ice as they are now, and LaFontaine was tired of sacrificing his body for a team with no chance to win. With few other options, the Islanders traded him to the Buffalo Sabres, a fact that mysteriously went unmentioned in the WSJ feature. Given that Wang didn't own the team at the time of that deal, it's easy to see how all was forgiven and LaFontaine was able to get back into the team's good graces and snag the unpaid advisory job 15 years later.

So will LaFontaine be able to repair his relationship with the team again this time? I'm sure that he can, but it probably won't happen until Wang sells the team. Unfortunately, by the time that comes to pass, the Islanders probably won't be playing on Long Island anymore.

Even post-Dick Ebersol, the “NBC Sports Report” inserts remain comically dishonest. Saturday, anchor Julie Donaldson, in order, reported: LPGA results (the LPGA is now largely seen on Golf Channel, an NBC property), NHL (an NBC property) results, a promo for an Indy car race (to be seen the next day on NBC Sports Net), and news that fired Illinois basketball coach Bruce Weber had been hired by Kansas State.

Dear Nationals Insider,

Let's work together to keep Phillies fans out - it's time to TAKE BACK THE PARK!

Starting today, single game tickets for the May 4-6 Nationals vs. Phillies series will be made available only to Nationals fans who reside in Washington, D.C., Maryland or Virginia.

To take advantage of this offer, click on the green Take Back the Park button below to register. Upon successful registration, you will receive an email with a one-time-use password to complete your purchase. Nationals fans may purchase up to eight tickets per game in one transaction, while supplies last.

We invite you to show your Nationals pride and TAKE BACK THE PARK!

Sincerely,
Andrew Feffer
Chief Operating Officer

Click here to view a picture of the announcement. Washington sports fan will recall this is a move straight out of the Ted Leonsis playbook. Of course, the easiest way to take back the park is to put a better team on the field, and all indications are that the Nationals will be a bit better this season.

Might be time to sell the wife on a partial season plan.