NHL referee hosting Ask Me Anything with officiating under scrutiny

The NHL is hosting an Ask Me Anything on Reddit with referee Wes McCauley this week. On the latest issue of Zone Time, Julian and crew submit their questions for review and ask if the NHL is truly ready for transparency around officiating.

Video Transcript

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Did you guys see that the NHL is having an "Ask Me Anything" with West McCauley on Thursday-- OMAR: Dumbest-- SAM CHANG: On Reddit? OMAR: Dumbest idea ever. JULIAN MCKENZIE: You think it's a dumb idea? OMAR: 1,000%. SAM CHANG: I love it. OMAR: 1,000%. SAM CHANG: I mean, I love Wes McCauley, so I think it's going to be great. [LAUGHS] JULIAN MCKENZIE: You wouldn't-- like, if you had a question for Wes-- OMAR: You know why it's dumb? You know why it's dumb? JULIAN MCKENZIE: Why is it dumb? Why is it dumb? OMAR: Because every-- because every question is going to be deleted. They're only going to-- JULIAN MCKENZIE: You think they're going to do that. OMAR: 1,000%. JULIAN MCKENZIE: [LAUGHS] OMAR: 1,000%. JULIAN MCKENZIE: It is Reddit. OMAR: Because you know if it's me-- if it's me, I have-- I have one question, that's it. One question. JULIAN MCKENZIE: Go off. OMAR: Why? RAHEF ISSA: [INAUDIBLE] OMAR: One word, that's it. Why? That's it. That's it. Why? Either that-- either that or what is your purpose? That's it. That's it. JULIAN MCKENZIE: Honestly, I just-- I just want to just ask please explain goaltender interference and just watch Wes just stammer for five minutes and not have any idea how to explain it. OMAR: I hope he does. Because you know what? I'm going to clip the hell out of it. And then any time we see goaltender interference-- JULIAN MCKENZIE: That's what I would do too. OMAR: Quote tweet every single-- every single time I see it. JULIAN MCKENZIE: That's what I would do too. OMAR: This is what the ref said. This is what the star ref of the league defined goaltender interference. So what the heck is-- if I'm Brendan Gallagher, I'm watching that-- I am watching that EMA. JULIAN MCKENZIE: (LAUGHING) Yes. OMAR: I am watching that so hard. If I am-- If I am Nazem Kadri, I'm watching that. If I am-- SAM CHANG: If I'm Connor McDavid, I'm watching that. OMAR: Connor McDavid, if I'm Leon Draisaitl, if I am any star player that always has these things-- these infractions done against them, and they don't draw any penalties-- RAHEF ISSA: Auston Matthews. OMAR: Auston Matthews, I'm watching that. I am watching that with a microscope and just popcorn. Just like, OK, cool, screen grabbing everything. And then when suspensions come up, no qualms. I would bring up the clip 100%. Oh, but-- oh, this is from Reddit. What's your point? 100%. Yeah, I understand that. JULIAN MCKENZIE: It's a guy in the league. That's the problem. See, if they did this, and they had, like, Tim Peel, who doesn't ref games anymore, if he did this, at the very least, the NHL could be like, well, he doesn't ref anymore. He got caught on that one hot mic that one time. Shout-out to Tim Peel, by the way, like, not being afraid of making podcast appearances after that, and being asked questions about the NHL, and just being honest. That's just my sense of Tim Peel, so I'll give him that. But at the same time, like-- OMAR: Is he? Is he being honest though? JULIAN MCKENZIE: I mean, I guess he's being-- OMAR: Because I-- JULIAN MCKENZIE: As honest as he can be. OMAR: I saw some-- SAM CHANG: Did you see his tweet from this week? OMAR: Because I saw some thing-- SAM CHANG: And I was like, come on. OMAR: Yeah, I saw some things-- JULIAN MCKENZIE: Wait, which tweet? RAHEF ISSA: I did not see a tweet. SAM CHANG: I have to look it up. I got to look it up. OMAR: Yeah, I've seen-- SAM CHANG: I remember reading it and rolling my eyes. OMAR: Yeah. I've seen Tim Peel, like, on Twitter say things like, oh, well, don't worry the calls will even themselves out at the end. That's not the point, Timothy. RAHEF ISSA: I was just going to say-- OMAR: That's not the point. RAHEF ISSA: I was just going to say, Wes McCauley, my question to you is please explain to me the philosophy behind the makeup call. Explain to me how it makes sense. Explain to me why the NHL participates in the makeup call. Why must things even themselves out in the end? And is that actually the way that, you know, infractions in the rules work? I don't think so. So I'm a little bit curious. Why is that the case? Why do penalties that are taken and drawn follow a linear fashion for teams? Why is that the case? Why? OMAR: Yeah. It's literally just like-- SAM CHANG: So-- OMAR: You-- ref officiating philosophy is you believe that you don't want to directly impact the game. Please explain why you're all liars. JULIAN MCKENZIE: Damn. All right. OMAR: That's it. SAM CHANG: Please-- please ask that in that-- JULIAN MCKENZIE: Please ask that. SAM CHANG: In that exact wording. OMAR: Yeah, just explain. Why are you lying? Why? Why? Why, man? Like, [LAUGHS] God. SAM CHANG: OK. So Tim Peel's tweet was like, "One year ago today, I made a major mistake. I chose the wrong words and paid a severe price. Everything I have is because of the National Hockey League. Gary Bettman and Bill Daly were incredible to me over my career." JULIAN MCKENZIE: Hey, look, someone had to give him a job, right? SAM CHANG: But yeah, so how honest is he being? JULIAN MCKENZIE: That's fair. That's fair. Maybe I shouldn't have been so lavish with praise with Tim Peel. He is a referee, after all. I mean, they are human, but they do make mistakes. SAM CHANG: I will say-- OMAR: Yeah. JULIAN MCKENZIE: I think this is going to go one of two ways. Like, it's interesting that Wes McCauley is doing it because he's, I think, probably the only ref that's mostly universally liked. And he's super entertaining, so he's going to be articulate. But either it's going to be what Omar said, where everything he says is what people want to hear, and it just gets clipped for eternity in relation to every single call. Or he somehow ruins his stellar reputation with fans on this. And I have no idea why he would take that risk, but-- OMAR: Yep. SAM CHANG: I'm here for it. JULIAN MCKENZIE: I'll take it one step further to the rule you wanted introduced, Sam. How-- if I was a general manager, and I saw that Wes McCauley was doing-- OMAR: No, I would-- JULIAN MCKENZIE: An AMA with-- OMAR: I would jump in. JULIAN MCKENZIE: Random fans on Reddit, not only would I jump in, I would go to Gary Bettman and be like, well, why is he able to do that with random fans on a Thursday? But if a call goes wrong after a game, I can't ask him that question? SAM CHANG: There's going to be-- JULIAN MCKENZIE: My coach can't ask him that. SAM CHANG: 32 burner accounts on this. OMAR: I was just about to say, there's going to be, like, a burner account made with a paragraph. Like, on January 6 at the third period and the second minute, you did not call this. Why? Like-- RAHEF ISSA: Please explain to me why. OMAR: They're going be like, that's awfully specific. JULIAN MCKENZIE: But I think this opens the door for, like-- I don't know. This is, like, a weird slippery slope. Like, if a ref is willing to go on the internet and answer ask me anythings, you know, what's the point? You know what would also piss me off about this? If-- to your point, Omar, about there would be a lot of deleted questions, if that AMA, they end up-- OK, like, we're not going to answer any officiating questions. It's just going to be random, you know-- RAHEF ISSA: You would see, like-- JULIAN MCKENZIE: Fun stuff. OMAR: Yeah. RAHEF ISSA: You would see, like-- JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah, fun-- RAHEF ISSA: Yeah. OMAR: Yeah. JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah. OMAR: What made you want to get into reffing? Who's the best player to work with? RAHEF ISSA: Yeah, it's-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] OMAR: How does it feel-- RAHEF ISSA: Moment that you had? OMAR: How does it feel-- JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah. OMAR: To ref the Stanley Cup playoff game-- like a bunch of that stuff. JULIAN MCKENZIE: Why do you make everything so epic? OMAR: Yeah. Why did you-- why did you decide to do the pose? That's going to be a fake question. Someone who's, like, running-- that's going to be a fake question. If they have, like, 20 questions in a row that are bad, someone's going to throw in, like, a explain why you did the fighting post thing? And they'll be, like, oh, that's a great question SteveJohnson123. It's like-- it's either going to be that, or they're going to do what I think is worse, where they're going to answer questions-- or he's going to answer questions in hockey speak. You know what I mean? JULIAN MCKENZIE: Hmm, cliches. OMAR: The whole, like-- well, you know what? Ideally when we're out there, you know, we really try to see everything. But, you know, sometimes, we miss things. And, you know, obviously it's very important. And we don't want to-- we don't want to impact the game. But you know what? We're all working as a team. You know, and I have myself, and the other refereeing person, and the linesman. We're all trying to do the right thing. And sometimes you miss calls, but it's OK. All right. But how come you-- how come you all don't call things sometimes? Well, you know, the game happens so fast, human error. You know what I'm saying? That's what I don't want to happen, where it's just, like, a bunch of just hockey gibberish, and we're just listening to Connor McDavid in officiating sweater just answer questions. Like, if we're going to do this AMA thing, let's make it legitimate. I don't think that's going to happen because, again, like, if players get severely fined-- and I think Gary Bettman emphasized at the meetings people will be severely fined for criticizing officiating. So I do not believe for a second they're truly going to honor this AMA. I think it's just going to be-- I think it's just going to be like a cutesy, hey, talk about-- RAHEF ISSA: Yeah. OMAR: Funny things. How is Brad Marchand like in real life-- like, and in all that stuff. RAHEF ISSA: And this is why, like, part of me wishes that people like Kyle Davis, you know, when they're actually really angry about the officiating would just come out and say something plainly. OMAR: Well, they can GoFundMe. RAHEF ISSA: It's, like, eat the fine and vent, because I know you want to vent. And I know you're pissed off. And, like, I just wonder what happens behind closed doors. Like, how does that work? Like, how many times is Kyle Davis picking up the phone and calling Gary Bettman about this or complaining about the officiating behind closed doors? Like, I'm really curious about that. [INTERPOSING VOICES] JULIAN MCKENZIE: If your GM-- if your GM just picked up the phone or just went on media one day and just said, OK, this is some bull-- some BS with this call and incurs a fine-- say it's like a $15,000 fine. How much money are you contributing to ensure that fine is paid? RAHEF ISSA: Absolutely nothing. I have student debt. OMAR: [LAUGHS] RAHEF ISSA: Kyle's going to pay it off himself. OMAR: [LAUGHS] JULIAN MCKENZIE: Y'all just-- you can't be-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] JULIAN MCKENZIE: On here saying, hey, if these GMs got to eat the fine, and then be all like, hey, Brian-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] JULIAN MCKENZIE: That's on you to pay-- RAHEF ISSA: Is a rich man-- is a rich man. OMAR: Oh, my God. RAHEF ISSA: He can pay the fine, and I will support him in spirit. And on Twitter, I will be his biggest fan. OMAR: Yo, there is one game where, like, Sheldon Keefe would have had every right. And, like, no joke, if a GoFundMe went out to pay the fine, I would have 100% put $10 max towards it. RAHEF ISSA: [LAUGHS] [INTERPOSING VOICES] JULIAN MCKENZIE: Sam, would you put any money towards Patrick Allwin? SAM CHANG: No, because he probably makes way more money than I do. He can afford it. JULIAN MCKENZIE: I mean, yeah, that's true. That's true. SAM CHANG: This is why-- this is why I think Rod Brind'Amour, like, has no problem going out and taking the $25,000 fines because he made so much money over his NHL career. He's just like, I'm going to say whatever I want about the refs. It's fine. OMAR: [LAUGHS] JULIAN MCKENZIE: That's a good-- that's it. Like, having a player coach is a great way to get around fines. They've made millions of dollars anyway. What's $25,000? I see-- SAM CHANG: And he's used to yelling at them on the ice anyway. It's-- JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah. SAM CHANG: No big deal. JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah, that's it. You know what? I see the vision. I understand. But yeah, anyway, all the-- to kind of put a bow on this topic, yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if Wes McCauley didn't take any serious questions. Maybe he'll answer about-- there was, like, some-- what was that call he did six years ago? I think it's the anniversary this week. It think it was, like, San Jose and LA, where he rules it as a goal, and takes a moment, and then does the epic-- I think you mentioned it earlier, Omar, the pose. OMAR: Yeah, that and the fighting. Like, we've got to go! Or the whole, like-- JULIAN MCKENZIE: We're fighting. OMAR: We're fighting. JULIAN MCKENZIE: For fight-- yeah. OMAR: Yeah. JULIAN MCKENZIE: How do you feel about the fact that Wes McCauley is one of the most recognizable personalities in the NHL? Like last week, we put up a poll and talked about how Connor McDavid is not a celebrity. OMAR: Yeah. Like one of the most marketable people the NHL could put up as a ref is Wes McCauley. RAHEF ISSA: Yeah, it's depressing, to answer your question. It's very sad. And then you wonder-- you wonder why the NHL is like the lowest of the Major League sports leagues in North America. That is the reason. The NHL's most remarkable player by far is Auston Matthews. I don't even think it's even close at this point. And it's sad that there's nobody else like him. OMAR: Yeah. But let's not let Justin Bieber around the team and design a jersey that's bad. JULIAN MCKENZIE: Jerseys are good. OMAR: The salary-- the salary cap-- SAM CHANG: Were they? OMAR: Went up. SAM CHANG: This is going to be an unpopular opinion-- OMAR: By $1 million and that's it. Like OK. SAM CHANG: Unpopular opinion on this particular panel, but I don't even think Auston Matthews is not interesting. Like-- JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah-- SAM CHANG: He is the most marketable-- OMAR: In retrospect-- SAM CHANG: But like-- JULIAN MCKENZIE: I'm with Sam. Me too. I agree on that. OMAR: No, I objectively-- objectively, I can say that-- yeah. Because, like, when he does interviews, he just does this-- he does the same stuff. He does the same hockey stuff. RAHEF ISSA: He does-- he does come out-- OMAR: But he is-- RAHEF ISSA: And do things sometimes in interviews-- OMAR: Yeah. SAM CHANG: Yeah. RAHEF ISSA: Where he'll do something funny, or he'll have, like, a super cheeky response. I think he does try to show his personality. OMAR: Yeah. RAHEF ISSA: But it's not comparable to, like, literally take anybody from the NBA, for example. Like, there's no comparison. OMAR: Yeah, not even close. Not even close. RAHEF ISSA: Yeah. JULIAN MCKENZIE: He has a mustache. RAHEF ISSA: Yeah. OMAR: Yeah. RAHEF ISSA: Yeah. JULIAN MCKENZIE: He has a mustache-- RAHEF ISSA: He's friends with Justin Bieber. JULIAN MCKENZIE: And looks like some-- he looks like someone who, if I was walking around Montreal, I'd be like, OK, he hangs on the plateau or something. Or I don't know what's a very hipster-- SAM CHANG: I actually-- RAHEF ISSA: Yeah. Yeah. SAM CHANG: Like, watching some of the Leafs TV stuff, I find William Nylander more entertaining than Auston Matthews. RAHEF ISSA: William Nylander-- OMAR: That's because-- you know, he doesn't care-- RAHEF ISSA: Love of my life-- SAM CHANG: I know! RAHEF ISSA: William Nylander. SAM CHANG: I know, but that's what you need. OMAR: Yeah. SAM CHANG: I somebody who gives no shits. [INTERPOSING VOICES] OMAR: Yes. RAHEF ISSA: William Nylander has no thoughts, head empty. OMAR: [LAUGHS] SAM CHANG: But it's-- give me that. Give me that. JULIAN MCKENZIE: Are you saying that William Nylander is a himbo? RAHEF ISSA: William Nylander is the himbo. SAM CHANG: Yeah, I'm with Rahef. JULIAN MCKENZIE: Oh, my God. OMAR: (LAUGHING) That's the best-- SAM CHANG: Number one himbo. OMAR: (LAUGHING) way to describe someone. JULIAN MCKENZIE: OK. OMAR: (LAUGHING) No thoughts and empty. JULIAN MCKENZIE: (LAUGHING) No thoughts and empty. OMAR: (LAUGHING) So funny. That's so funny. JULIAN MCKENZIE: You heard it here. I didn't realize this, but William Nylander is the himbo of the National Hockey League. OMAR: Oh, my God. That's so funny. RAHEF ISSA: Yep. [LAUGHS] JULIAN MCKENZIE: I am glad we were able-- RAHEF ISSA: Why do you think he survives in this market? OMAR: It's true. RAHEF ISSA: It's because William Nylander-- OMAR: That's so true. RAHEF ISSA: Does not care. OMAR: That's so true. RAHEF ISSA: He does not care. And he doesn't-- SAM CHANG: But that's how somebody becomes marketable. RAHEF ISSA: He doesn't care-- SAM CHANG: Right? OMAR: Yeah. SAM CHANG: Like, that's a marketer's dream is somebody who does not care and will say whatever and do whatever because it's entertaining. JULIAN MCKENZIE: So you guys would go through an AMA on Reddit with William Nylander. You'd-- RAHEF ISSA: I love William Nylander. JULIAN MCKENZIE: You'd ask a question? OMAR: I would do-- RAHEF ISSA: I would do that-- OMAR: Oh, 100%. 100%. RAHEF ISSA: "Pass Me the Puck" William Nylander. Yeah, that is his Twitter bio for, like, 10 years. Pass me the Puck smiley face. [INAUDIBLE] I love him. JULIAN MCKENZIE: Oh, my God. OMAR: [LAUGHS]