Former official Dan Marouelli may have retired in 2010, but he still follows the action like he's preparing to call the next game.
Marouelli, who refereed four Stanley Cup Final series (1999, 2000, 2001, 2003) and 187 playoff games during his 28-year career, spent the first two rounds of this post-season critiquing his colleagues for CBC Sports.
Now with Game 1 of the final in the books between the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins, Marouelli took time to talk with CBCSports.ca, about topics ranging from the Alex Burrows biting incident to the tone of the game set by the officials.
CBCSports.ca: What was your reaction to Canucks forward Alex Burrows biting the finger of Boston centre Patrice Bergeron during a scrum in the second period that linesman Pierre Racicot missed?
Marouelli: I saw the replay of it today, and the interesting thing was it was two French-Canadian hockey players who were speaking and conversing in French, according to the report that I got. Pierre is bilingual and he's from the province from Quebec as well. So he heard exactly what was going on there but in looking at the replay he clearly didn't see the biting. I think it's a real act of cowardice by Alex Burrows. It's something that the league needs to look at. I do believe it's suspendable. Whether it's a Stanley Cup final or not, it's not something that should be tolerated in our game and hopefully the NHL will send a strong message in a way of a suspension to Burrows. If they don't, it will affect the integrity of our game. That stuff can't be tolerated.
CBCSports.ca: Had Racicot saw the incident, what penalty would have been assessed to Burrows?
Marouelli: It's a match penalty for deliberately injuring and he's out of the game. In this case, looking at Bergeron, he clearly injured him. It was interesting how this all transpired because when it started, Burrows is the type of individual that knows what he's dealing with. Bergeron has had some concussion problems. He grabbed his face mask and started to rough him around. Now, you're dealing with Bergeron's head here and you can tell that Bergeron wasn't comfortable with that so he put his hand and got it around Burrows' mouth area. And Burrows said, 'Well what was I supposed to do, he put his hand in my mouth?' Well you're not supposed to bite him.
CBCSports.ca: What type of suspension would send a message that this kind of act won't be tolerated?
Marouelli: I really believe that it's worth a couple of games, I really do. I think they need to draw the line and hold players accountable for these types of actions that are really detrimental to our sport. Will he get two? I'll be surprised if he does [the NHL didn't suspend Burrows], but I wouldn't have any trouble giving him two games. That's a dangerous act. You don't go around biting people.
That's why under the NHL rules, it's called supplementary discipline and that's why we have that. There are certain things that will be missed…it's only human that officials can't see everything. That's where the supplementary discipline kicks in and they [NHL] need to uphold the integrity of the game.
CBCSports.ca: Twelve power plays were handed out in the first two periods of the opening game. Do you think this was a message sent by the officials in order to get control the series quickly?
Marouelli: Game 1 is very important to set the standard. I think that both of these teams aren't overly aggressive but I do think that they [officials] were definitely trying to send a message to the players to get the series off to the right start.
CBCSports.ca: Stephen Walkom was part of the officiating team in Game 7 of the Boston-Tampa Bay series where no penalties were called. In the fifth-and-deciding game of the Vancouver-San Jose series, no penalties were called from the third period right through the second overtime under Walkom's watch. Do you think the players decided to test Walkom in light of those two games?
Marouelli: They had a preconceived idea based on Stephen's track record during these playoffs. They knew that he didn't call an overabundance of penalties and did they push the envelope? Probably, I mean it is the Stanley Cup final, so they're definitely going to see how far they can stretch it as far as where the officials are going to draw the line. And last night was a good example of that, where the guys had to set the standard.
CBCSports.ca: It appeared the teams settled down in the third period?
Marouelli: Yes. For the first two periods it's a feeling out process. They're both coming off some extended down time, which is good. It takes a while for the players to get back into rhythm and into sync. It's kind of a chess match in the beginning. It's difficult for the coaches and players to get into a rhythm when there's so many penalties. Playing 5-on-5, they have a better opportunity to do that but when you're killing penalties or you're on a power play it's a different ball game. I think it was just a feeling out time and then they got down to the third period and got down to business. It makes for some good hockey.
CBCSports.ca: Now that the tone has been set by the officials, are you expecting the players to take it down a notch and for the penalties to be significantly reduced?
Marouelli: I hate to prejudge that. I think they're going to go out and do what they think is necessary. From Boston's standpoint, they understand how powerful the Vancouver power play is so they going to certainly have to concentrate on some more discipline. Do I think there will be less penalties in Game 2? Probably. Will that be the case for the entire series? It's too early to tell.
CBCSports.ca: When you were a referee how did you handle the off days while doing a Stanley Cup Final in terms of critiquing your performance?
Marouelli: After every game, each official is given his own DVD to review if you choose to do it. And trust me our guys are perfectionist. There hasn't been a perfect game officiated yet. I always used to tell them to 'stride for progress not perfection,' and to stay consistent with yourself. Reviewing those DVDs can be a real helpful thing to pinpoint some things. I mean you just don't feel right out there [without watching the tapes]. It's part of the learning curve. To have the ability to watch yourself and see why you might have missed a call or why you chose not to make that call is a big help. We've all been beaten on calls to where there's maybe been an embellishment of sorts and you wish you can suck the air back out of your whistle, but you can't. The DVDs are very helpful that way and it's another tool the guys will use.
CBCSports.ca: What's the contact between a referee and the head of officiating during the final? Do you chat at all on performance and other pertinent issues?
Marouelli: Absolutely. The public should know that Terry Gregson is the series supervisor and will be in charge of the final. Terry will travel to each game, will conduct a meeting before each game and he'll bring them up to speed as far as any intelligence that's been gathered over the course of the series, i.e., certain trends that might be going on, certain players that might be overly aggressive, coaching tactics, delaying tactics. All this different kind of intelligence Terry will have that for the guys and he'll bring them up to speed with what happened in the previous game. It's all about preparation.
CBCSports.ca: So Terry will give his guys feedback after every game?
Marouelli: Yes. Terry will go in there and mention to them what he thought went well and he might mention things that can show them some improvement. Basically, what he's trying to do there is [handle] anything before it gets to a point of becoming a real problem or an issue. He can take the corrective measures early so you don't have to go there.
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