from Jack Todd at the Montreal Gazette,

When in doubt, blame the ref.

It’s a system as old as the games we watch. Players, coaches, fans, media critics and even league officials get into the act and the only rule is that the referee is always wrong in the eyes of someone, somewhere.

And the number of eyes on the ref has multiplied exponentially in the age of replay review — reviews that are, in my humble opinion, wrecking the entire experience.

Even with the mind-numbing review delays, the NHL is enduring a post-season nightmare, a litany of gaffes. When league execs are taking pot-shots at their own referees, you have the very definition of a mess.

Key goals that should count are disallowed. Goals that should be waved off are allowed. Phantom penalties are called, real penalties are missed. Games are decided not by the players on the ice but by referees and anonymous war-room geeks.

What to do, what to do?

The solution may seem counter-intuitive but it’s there: Give the referees the power they once had to officiate the game. There was a time, before the two-referee system and that utterly inept war room in Toronto, when a single referee ran the game he officiated.

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