Who was the NHL's worst ever ref?

by Brandt Corbin

           

            Over the years we’ve seen our fair share of calls, where you say out loud WTF was that. That is why we’re going to review the worst ever NHL referees. Some of these guys you’ll ask yourselves how they even got a job officiating a minor league game, but some how someway they got to the NHL.

Not even close, the absolute worst ref ever is? 

            Lance Roberts, this guy was a complete and udder joke. When I started to watch hockey faithfully in 1993 this ass clown was one the referees. Every time I’d watch a game and Roberts was officiating I would roll my eyes and ask myself why me why now. I cannot remember one game that I seen his officiate that he was horrible. You have to remember this back then there was only 1 ref not two.  Finally after 14 seasons and 558 games officiated he was fired in 2001.

Who else was and is god awful

            Two ref’s now a days are almost as bad as Roberts, and no I do not have anything who is French Canadian. The worst currently is Stephane Auger, he is so bad, he’s one of the few refs not selected for the playoffs for two years in a row. When you’re not chosen for the second season, you could be on the short list to be fired. It all started couple of years ago where Auger had an incident with Shane Doan. Auger had claimed Doan said a slur towards the french Auger, Doan was accessed a misconduct. The NHL reviewed the incident but concluded they were baseless. Then two seasons ago, Auger gave Nashville’s Jerad Smithson a boarding major and game misconduct.  As soon as he called, it became apparent the victim Alexander Burrows had acted as if he was hurt, but was fine. Auger officiated the next game between the two teams, and Burrows alleged that Auger said (he would) “get him back”. The league again looked into the matter, but said nothing could be sustained. Then this past year many New York Islanders accused Auger of conspiracy in a game versus the Devils.

         Marc Joanette is doing himself no favour's so for this post season. I can count three or four times so far in two weeks, where he’s lost complete control of the game. He called Mike Richards for a elbowing major, Patrick Kaleta came after Richards, and the Flyers captain got his elbow up to defend himself. That plus other calls have all fans rolling their eyes when Joanette is announced as an official of a game.

           A couple of others who deserves honourable mention as one of the worst refs ever. Dean Warren was fired four years ago, more to do with union issues, but on the ice he was not overly great. Mick McGeough had allot of issues, plus his fair share of controversial calls and actions  on the ice. Mike Hasenfrantz and Rob Martel all are others that had problems, and shockingly non of them every officiated a Stanley Cup Final.