Flood, a Level 5 hockey referee, was reacting to a change invoked this year for the Newfoundland Senior A Hockey League whereby the league will revert back to a three-man system from a four-man crew where there were two referees and two linesmen.
The change was made at a meeting of senior hockey representatives at the fall meeting of Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador in Gander earlier this year. Going to a three-man system was viewed by delegates as a cost-saving measure and also addressed concerns expressed about the shortage of qualified officials in some regions of the province.
Flood no longer calls senior hockey games, but he has played a key role in the grooming of some of the young officials in Corner Brook as his role as referee-in-chief for the Corner Brook Minor Hockey Association.
“I think it’s going to be physically more demanding for individuals,” Flood said of the change. “I think it’s a bad move.”
“We had pretty good control of the hockey game and now it’s going to be a lot tougher to do it,” he added. “The extra set of eyes was always a bonus.”
Flood said the game has change a lot over the past few years with players being able to skate more freely and at high speeds with no clutching and grabbing or holding players up.
He recalls a time when both fans and players complained about the whacking and hacking behind the play with only one official trying to keep an even playing field. The introduction of the four-man system a handful of years ago was suppose to help curb the nonsense away from the play.
“I think all of that is going to come back,” he said.
Finding enough qualified officials to handle the assignments in senior hockey circles is something Flood acknowledges is both a reality and a concern. Central Newfoundland, where the league has both the Gander Flyers and Grand Falls-Windsor Cataracts calling home, has struggled with numbers over the past couple of years, according to Flood.
However, Flood believes the west coast has been spared in this manner because a number of young officials have moved up through the ranks over the past couple of years so the numbers haven’t been much of a challenge like other centres.
“It’s saved our bacon really and it’s going to save us for the rest of this year,” he said of the pool of officials available to work games. “We’ve got enough quality officials who have been doing four-man for quite some time and they’re young and still able to skate quite well.”
On those occasions where an official wasn’t available to handle a game somebody from outside the area was brought in to handle the assignment. League officials, no doubt, hope the move to the three-man system will make life easier for all hands.
“If they’re bringing in people every single weekend it’s going to cost somebody a lot of money,” Flood said.