Can’t Argue with Evidence – WidemanEffect and Ref Bias in the NHL

Last week Elliot Friedman mentioned on Hockey Night in Canada how the league and the Flames brass sat down to talk about the ‘alleged’ increase in Flames penalty calls. The cause of the unusual increase? Refs taking revenge on the club for the Dennis Wideman hit on linesman Don Henderson (who still hasn’t fully recovered).

The refs maintain that bias couldn’t be further from the truth, and proceeded to show the club examples where all penalties were in fact penalties. Imagine being in that room with the league showing the Flames what a penalty is. They must have been seething. Of course, a penalty is a penalty, it’s what you don’t call that matters.

But let’s go back to the issue at hand, is…