Hello fellow referees! I recently just refereed a U15 LL game and it’s made me realize that youth hockey has gotten completely out of control in terms of respect towards officials. I’m a 17 year old junior referee and this is my 4th year officiating in the OMHA. During this game I was verbally made fun of on the ice and later off the ice as I exited the rink. And as far as I can see I didn’t do anything wrong during the game. Only thing I can think of is I assessed a misconduct to a kid who was refusing to go to the box and continued to argue the call placed against him. He later left the box after his time had expired and skated towards me during stoppage of play in an attempt to use his stick to trip me, he was assessed a game misconduct for his actions which resulted in his removal from the game where his coaches completely disagreed with the call and even ignored my request to talk to the player about his actions after the match. As I was leaving the rink a few teenagers who must’ve been spectators of the game were making comments with each other over my officiating. I’m writing this right now to ask the community of referees and especially the younger officials, has respect and sportsmanship in hockey disappeared?

Looks like I’m about to get ghosted on a game by my ref partner... Any tips as the lone ref??

For context, Im a baby ref with little experience and this is a non-checking women’s beer league with players of all levels. The girl in yellow is perhaps the best in the league and had already gotten one body checking penalty earlier in the night for throwing someone down pretty roughly close to the boards.

She seems to be playing the puck, but also lays the other, far less skilled player out.

We called it a penalty on the ice but watching it now I’m questioning the call. Thoughts?

Player A lifts stick of player B accidentally high sticking him. Play goes on, no call. Player B falls to the ground. Refs blow play dead. Confer with player Bs coaches. Then call minor for high sticking on player A. Neither ref made a call originally. Is that right?

I’m an official in BC and within now and next season I am going to have to make a decision as to what route to take. With the recent events of KIJHL splitting and WIJHL being created and taken under the wing of BCHL serving as a development league for players and officials therefore becoming non sanctioned. Where as the BCHC (formerly KIJHL) is the route to WHL and you can participate in Hockey Canada events.

Given the opportunity that both serve, it’s extremely difficult to see one option as the right option however I am leaning towards BCHL currently. As I’ve seen local officials go that route and and have found lots of success that way.

Curious to see what some experienced junior officials have to say!

I know refs are smarter so I was hoping you all could answer this. I ref and coach.

I got a new batch of pucks from my organization, and they are too slippery. The 18U Rec team is having trouble stick handling and controlling them. I noticed this happened before, but I can't remember if I got the pucks from Amazon or Pure Hockey.

Is there any way to fix them?

Thank you in advance, this is a serious question.

NHL- An offensive player is heading to the offensive zone and tosses the puck in, I believe they are past the red line, and the linesman will give a signal of both arms out horizontally indicating what I've gathered is a "Washout" signal? Only thing is, a washout doesn't seem to apply. Generally no icing is called because of the offensive players position of being past a certain line (either out of their own zone, or past the redline) Can you clear this up? It's bugging me because it seems it's a signal that doesn't mean much, no whistle, etc but it's telling the players something?

Hi there, I recently got a pair of Stevens ref pants, and I am not a big fan of the tailbone pad. Has anyone else taken the pad out entirely? And will the performance be effected by taking it out or is it just a comfort thing? Just looking for an opinion before I cut it out. Thanks in advance!

Player A in the attacking zone shoots the puck at the goalie, hits the goalie in the pads and flutters up. Player a brings his stick up to about mid sternum and attempts to bat the puck into the goal. Goalie is in the butterfly position about at the edge of the crease and gets hit in the head with the player A’s stick. I didn’t call anything because in my opinion, player A was legally trying to play the puck and unfortunately the goalie took a shot to the head. Was this a good no call ?

Bug on a windshield.

5+GM or Match ?

I have observed that a few times (in the nhl at least) the referees and sometimes linesmen will either focus on getting them out of the scrum or stop them from joining the scrum. Why?

I was a bit rusty. Mostly with post-whistle transitions and assignments. Is there somewhere that I can read up on post-whistle assignments for linespersons?

I leaned last night:
-bench side takes the goal celebration
-front lines takes the icing face off

Who takes players to the box after a penalty?

My October BCA jersey reveal for this year!

I think it looks way better than last years

Wow guys, out of everything on here involving myself, this is amazing. Thanks for the support!

Some background: this is my first year officiating. I have not played competitive hockey in nearly 20 years (highest level midget AA) and have only played the occasional drop in game since. I watch a lot of hockey.

So last night was only my second game; first was a squirt game three days prior. Last night was your typical adult league late night puck drop, after my normal bedtime, so I'm a zombie especially after a stressful day at work.

The skill and competition level is pretty high i would say, its from what i can tell, their B division. these guys definitely played at levels above me in their careers.

Well here are the game notes:

• I'm on wrong side for opening faceoff
• Blew the whistle early, soft and lacking confidence, more than once in the first period
• Dropped a few faceoffs before players are squared
• Didn't call a really obvious blue line icing
• Didn't call one bad penalty that basically happened directly in front of me
• Was unable to avoid interfering with play a couple of times
• Got stuck out of position a few times
• there was a bad misconduct and almost match penalty where I was completely useless in answering questions for players
• Basically looked like I didn't know what I'm doing

It was pretty rough in the moment and had me questioning why I signed up for this, but in the end I ultimately felt like I learned a lot from my mistakes, and it felt really great actually being a part of hockey again.

The players were definitely chirping me to the other ref who was incredibly seasoned and basically carried the game, really great guy but I could tell he was also a little annoyed (the players mostly I think).

So last night has me thinking I'm just not cut out for this. I know I need more games, but is this sort of thing common? Either getting a game like that with this little experience, or performing that poorly in your second game? Feasibly, could someone who hasn't been away from playing as long as me step into a game like that and just own it way better?

I'm definitely not going to give up after only that one game, but i feel like I'm having to relearn the sport I grew up playing and still love.

I don't give a shit about the player chirps, but I do care that they get fair game and that I'm not impacting their day negatively, it's all about having fun right?

Anyways, any tips or advice this sub has for me would be greatly appreciated. I just had to get this off my chest since I don't have any referee friends yet.

edit:

i forgot the worst offense of all: i blew whistle for icing on a penalty kill. that was really bad.

(Finally) finishing my USAH level 3 learning module. In the section on "coaches expectations" a quiz question reads "One of the two elements that coaches are concerned with are:"

And one of the answer choices is "Coffee before the game"

HOW IS THAT NOT CORRECT??!?!

Sorry, I'm taking the 75% on this section. They can fight me on that one.

Can someone list the Oct/Nov 2026 classroom seminars available in the NJ/DE/PA area? I want to become an official but they won’t let me see what seminars are available without paying for the membership first.

“Parents have to set examples for children and parents at youth sports are the models for the behaviour that we would expect in our society,” she said.

I hate to say it but these people have to sign waivers, codes of conduct and in some instances take a course. They don't work and executives act reluctantly. This is why hockey is a toxic environment.

Quick question regarding getting paid as a ref. Looks like its 1099. Does anyone run an LLC as a ref, is it even worth it? Like better tracking of job related expenses, as minimal as they are. Thanks for taking the time and input!

Like this end of game situation between boston and ottawa. You got 10 guys all getting into it with each other, they already tagged Zadorov for the initial penalty - why doesn't at least one of the refs get in there to help separate bodies? I figure they're supposed to be on the lookout for other shenanigans to call penalties on, but does it really take both? They could get this shit sorted out so much faster and without additional full-on fights breaking out if there was an additional set of hands in there.

[OTT-BOS] Nick Cousins has a rough shift. He gets flattened, Zadorov hits him squarely in the head, a brouhaha ensues in the dying seconds of the game. (Zadorov 2min Interference, 10 min Misc, Cousins 10 min Misc)
by u/nopClip in hockey

Is it within 3 ft of the bench, or both skates off the ice for determining a TMP penalty

Yesterday I called a too many players penalty on white because the player that had gotten on for the player going to the bench played the puck before both of the retreating players skates were off the ice

I am reffing an AHF 8U, 1/2 ice game next weekend. Does anyone know where I can find a document that spells out the dynamics of this game? Not sure what to expect.