Rigmarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 5.18

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Well time to weigh in on the Alex Burrows, Stephan Auger incident from earlier in the week. I won’t go through all the details again as they’ve been well documented but it’s safe to say if the NHL had to chose a particular kind of publicity, one of its players claiming in the media that a referee purposefully officiated in a way to get back at a player, willfully altering the outcome of the game if need be, would not be at the top of the league’s list.

What had the potential to become a very ugly situation for the NHL seems to have calmed down and died off without too much damage to anybody’s reputation. Burrows was the only party to be officially reprimanded, incurring a $2500 fine for publically questioning the integrity of Auger’s officiating. Not surprised really. Had the NHL avoided delivering any kind of punishment to Burrows, it would set a standard and it would become open season for the criticism of officials.

Also, no fine for Burrows would imply the NHL supported his claim of corruption and no league will hang one of its official out to dry, at least not until a thorough investigation has been conducted. While the evidence available certainly could lend credence to Burrows’ story, especially the discussion between Burrows and Auger prior to the puck drop, Auger just as easily could have simply said, “Hey, stop embellishing injuries, it makes you look foolish.”

And therein is where the problem lies. Without a third party witness, and it seems at this point like there is none, we may never know the exact details of that infamous pregame conversation as it is Burrows’ word against Auger’s. While both Burrows and Auger now continue to go about their work without much of an affect from the incident, one thing is clear: if anything came of this at all, the spotlight will be focused on both parties involved for the remainder of the season so they ought to be on their best behavior. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.