Running an adult hockey league is certainly a thankless job, but Joe Battaglia is one of the best at it. Joe runs the men’s league at the Fiesta Casino, normally consisting of a dozen ice slots from Tuesday through Thursday and encompassing A, B and C levels. Now you’ve heard plenty about men’s league officiating in this column over the past three seasons and that’s why Officially Speaking is happy to provide Joe’s insight into adult hockey in general and lumberjack officiating in particular. Balanced journalism – I mean, that’s why you read this column. Right?

Joe, how long have you been supervising adult leagues?

I’ve been running the men’s league now for about 4 or 5 years. I’m originally from West Hempstead, N.Y., and I’ve been in Vegas now for about 26 years. I got involved with my son (Justin’s) youth hockey first. I was a team dad for some of his clubs during his playing years (his hockey has taken us from Southwest part of the country to Midwest and even Canada). As a hockey parent, I strongly recommend getting involved with youth hockey if your kids play. It’s very rewarding. After he moved on from youth hockey, I was offered to stay involved with our men’s league! It’s just a great way to stay involved in the game.

Unlike youth leagues, men’s leagues often involve the constant collection of money and that’s got to be a difficult assignment.

I have a two-payment plan for my teams – first- and fifth-week payments. But I charge playoff ice time separately because you don’t know how far a team will go in the playoffs. In my view, if a team is no longer playing, they should not be required to pay for ice time. I know some leagues are different and the playoff team essentially receives “free ice” for playoffs, but I think the guys like the way I handle it.

OK, let’s get to it. What’s the No. 2 biggest complaint you hear about the officiating? (No. 1 obviously being icing washouts).

Non-calls. I would rather see two guys go and sit for 10 minutes than let something fester and start up later.

I knew you would say that, so let’s expand on this further. As an official, we sometimes say we’re going to call everything, but in fact, that’s not the way the players want the game to be reffed. Normally, most vets balance this out by watching and seeing how the game flows. For example, at the upper levels in particular, body contact and certain amounts of stick checks are basically expected and guys hate it when we call the game too tightly. But then you’ve got other players that immediately go crazy over a quick stick tug and that’s when an official needs to shut that stuff down before someone takes offense and escalates the matter. Of course, it’s best when we can call a good first penalty, but that opportunity often does not arise. As a veteran league director, are you cognizant of these issues and would you prefer that your officials take a wait-and-see approach to avoid over-calling the game, or would you rather see us clamp down right at the outset?

I prefer tight calls from the start. I know players complain about over-calling, but in my view, players like that ruin the game, i.e. slow theeeee gaaammmee downnnnnnnn. They say it ruins the flow, but if you don’t clamp down, the mayhem shows up.

Good to hear because last week, my partner and I had 13 penalties in a tight playoff game at the Fiesta and guys were screaming about all the calls, but I think we had to make them in order to avoid something worse.

And this nicely segues into the next question. As a veteran adult league official, we want to know that us referees have the backing of the rink and/or league administrator when our calls are disputed. Yet we understand that you have to balance those interests against the “customer’s” satisfaction. In other words, the paying players. Naturally, that puts the league director in a relatively difficult position. What advice would you give new directors facing this perpetual difficulty?

Get to know your players in your league. Let them see that you have to answer to the rink, while answering to the players, and mutual respect has to work both ways to improve the league!

So just like us refs feel squeezed between the players, the league administration and the local referee association, you, as league director, are also juggling the competing interests of rink management, the referees association and the paying players. I’m not sure most people are even aware of this. Wow, what a balancing act!

You described that well. Oh the issues –after they yell at you guys, then they come and “discuss the grievance” with me. I’m a proactive kinda guy. If you can stop something from even starting, I think that’s a great thing to keep the game moving. But it’s up to you guys to see and feel the emotions going on. You guys oversee the game; it’s your game that you’re directing, but it’s also nice to have a league director out there every night. That’s why I stick around during the games, and even though guys complain to me after the game, it’s all part of being a league director. By being out there, it’s showing support to both players and officials, which I think stops complaints from escalating. In other words, everything is normally taken care of right there at the rink, which stops beefs from festering over the course of the next few days. It’s over by the time a guy gets in his car.

Let’s talk about the structure of the game. Specifically, periods. You go two 20-minute, running time periods and then a stop-time, 15-minute third. I kind of like that. But because you go running for two-thirds of the game, I think you should consider modifying the icing rule. Many adult leagues use blue line icing, and when you factor in the running clock, using blue-line icing will give more game-time action to the players. Do you think you would consider blue-line icing in the future?

Anything that can keep the game moving is a positive development. 

Veteran men’s league officials understand there are two types of games – the players’ game and the referees’ game. Of course, we would rather let the players decide the outcome through clean, competitive and non-belligerent play. (This actually DOES happen). From my perspective, the best way to avoid fights and unruliness is to have competitively-balanced teams, which means A players stay off of C-level squads. That often brings bad blood. How do you try to balance the teams?

That’s very difficult to do when you don’t have an even amount of all level players (A, B and C).This is happening to me next season unless I can find all B/C level guys for my Tuesday night league. What might have to be done is allow all teams an even amount of A level guys added to their rosters.

Do you anticipate a surge of hockey interest and accompanying new adult teams as a result of the NHL coming to Las Vegas? And if so, are you constrained with inadequate ice capacity as even with the new double-rink practice facility opening there will still be just five ice sheets in town?

Of course there is likely to be an additional adult league at the new rink but that’s not going to affect us here at the Fiesta. We may be restricted with one sheet of ice, but I have 20 teams. Sure, I could add a team or two, but with the cheapest ice and earliest game times in town, we do pretty good here at the Fiesta Sobe. Having a second sheet would be nice for tournaments, but not for men’s league yet.

Yeah, that’s true about your game times. You start up at 7 p.m., during the week and rarely have a game starting after 10. Us refs love that!

One thing that amazes veteran referees is the collective rule ignorance coming from certain players. Just last week, guys were insisting that an icing error results in a center-ice face-off. And of course, the all-familiar stick-above-the-cross bar tip-in beef by a defending team even though that’s not the USA Hockey rule. Talk about losing credibility. Do you know if players are provided USA rulebooks or other educational materials to help them understand the rules?

A lot of the players are quite aware of the rules. I wish there was something from USA Hockey they get when they renew their USA Hockey registration.

Continuing on with player gripes, referees at every level are amazed at the conduct of players when we lose sight of the puck or have a difficult time deciding on a goal when a puck caroms off the inside of the cross bar. Yet these very controversies happen all the time in the NHL, including in the Stanley Cup Final. So if four of the NHL’s best referees earning $10,000 per game need the assistance of five television cameras up in Toronto, you would think these beer league guys would keep it zipped when that happens in their own games. But that’s probably asking too much. Thoughts?

No comment!

As an official, we like to say that when teams comes to the ice on time, dressed uniformly and appear serious, it sets a great tone for the league and for the officials as well. But when you get four of five guys slogging onto the ice with 30 seconds left in the warm-up, donned in three different colors of jerseys and no numbers on back, it appears that the guys don’t care from the outset, which naturally sets the wrong scene at puck drop. Is this something that can be worked on or is this simply the historical nature of men’s leagues which can never change? 

Interesting point. In fact, I have actually improved it here at the Fiesta Sobe. When I took the league over a few years ago, none of these teams had matching jerseys. But now, almost all of them do except for the occasional sub that was unable to quickly secure a jersey. It’s a long road!

Yeah, you’re right. Most of the teams in your league do have matching jerseys and it’s nice to see. Seriously, the refs take notice.

Thanks for the candid responses. I’ve been around for 27 seasons, including 6,000 games and probably half of those were adult leagues. Trust me, it’s definitely a pleasure to have you greet us refs as we enter the rink and to have you stick around during the games so we can obtain official clarification when needed. I know the other zebras feel the same about you as well. Thanks, Joe.

Questions and comments can be sent to editor@letsplayhockey.com, via Twitter @OSpeaking or through the Let’s Play Hockey Facebook page.