Ice Hockey: Abuse of officials has to end

There is a clear line between opinion and abuse. Sport thrives on one, is buckled by the other.

The echo chamber that is Twitter is filled with the thunder of outrage after so many hockey games - a sound and fury that is harsh in tone, and, too often,  spiteful in its delivery.

One fan recently started a petition to try to remove referee Stefan Hogarth. It has a mighty 38 signatures after a full week online.

And, at the weekend,  one fan hurled a foam Chuck-A-Puck over the plexi as the stripeys left the ice at Sheffield after a stormy period of hockey.

The petition and the foam puck may be blunt, juvenile weapons, but there is a much bigger issue here which cannot be ignored.

At what stage does the sport say enough is enough?

Clearly it was a horrible night at the office in Sheffield.

Steelers obviously weren’t much better, slumping to a 7-3 home loss to Cardiff Devils. Pretty sure that wasn’t all down to some rubbish calls from the officials either - but they are the easy targets; easier than perhaps picking apart the shortcomings of the performances of your heroes.

All kudos to referee, Liam Sewell, for taking to social media on his terms and  speaking with honesty.

“I can’t lie,” he said. “The penalty on Duba was bad, and as soon as I saw the replay, I made sure to go over and tell him ‘that was ****** awful and I am so sorry.”

Sewell added another sentence that goes to the heart of this debate.

“I can handle the crap after, but what I won’t take is someone attacking me and the reason I made the decision to come home.”

Officials have been criticised ever since the first puck was dropped, but in 2019, those attacks go much further.

By tagging refs into tweets, they ensure officials see the abuse the moment they open their account. The noise follows them from the ice pad to their car to their home or hotel.

What happens on the ice pad, no longer stays there.

That's symptomatic of the anger which bubbles to the surface - the harshness and brutality of social media spilling over into real life, and diminishing our sport.

It's easy to get swept up in a moment, and for the red mist to descend when you are incensed at a call or no-call against your team.

But the rink, the club and the league all have a clear duty to protect everyone on the pad, and anyone dumb enough to throw a  missile, however soft it may be, has be invited to go find something else to do on a Saturday night.

They have no place in this sport. The foam-chucking oaf won’t be missed, but I’ll bet he’ll miss this sport.