This weeks powerplay magazine published the statistics of the Elite league referees so far this season with regards to penalties awarded to the home team, visiting team, totals and average penalty minutes per game.  The six referee’s in the league are ranked by average penalty minutes per game and it doesn’t make surprising reading…

Topping the table is of course Mike Hicks who on average hands out 87.5 penalty minutes per game.  Comapre that to Andy Carson who has handed out just 46.8 per game, Moray Hansons  who has dished out 65.2 or even another Odyssey regular Nigel Boniface who has dealt out 77.4 per game and you see what some fans are saying about Mr. Hicks’ over doing the new zero tolerance policy.

Still with the league, the players and the fans looking for some kind of consistency the large gap of 40.7 penalty minutes per game from top to bottom does make disturbing reading.  Either way it’s still early days and like the players the referees are adjusting too.  All credit to powerplay magazine however for providing these interesting stats and they certainly will be interesting to read over the course of the season as we hope to see the average come down a little, or at least the gap.

Pens per game:

1. Mike Hicks - 87.5 in 6 games
2. Matt Thompson - 83.0 in 2 games
3. Paul Staniforth - 78.0 in 3 games
4. Nigel Boniface - 77.4 in 5 games
5. Moray Hanson - 65.2 in 5 games
6. Andy Carson - 46.8 in 5 games

P.S.  Anyone know why we have hardly ever seen Thompson or Staniforth referee in Belfast? 

Category: Elite League » |

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