Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

Inundated with emails about Alex Burrows and Stephane Auger, Spec attempts to straighten it out.

The mail bag is exclusively an Alex Burrows-Stephane Auger affair this week. So we're going with it.

Bad call, you say? Well, when in Rome ...

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Kyle writes: "In light of the Nashville-Vancouver game should there possibly be new rules put in place where refs can be penalized or fined for bad calls?"

Spec says: The league can start fining referees for bad calls as soon as they begin fining players every time they fail to execute a 10-foot pass or miss a wide open net. Or fining coaches when they fill out a lineup card improperly, or put together bad line combinations.

What has become clear during the past few days is that people have this unreal expectation that a referee should be perfect, and the game should be called consistently night after night, game after game, in every NHL city by every NHL ref.

Is there a team that plays consistently for 82 games? A player who plays at the exact same level every night? A sports writer who produces every single column at the same high level?

Referees are human. They are not perfect – even if you are.

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Doogy writes: "Two points were adversely affected in the standings by an official. The NHL needs to act swiftly and strongly, but sadly, it won't help the Canucks with the two points that they lost (Monday) night."

Spec says: You want to lay blame for the two points? How about Henrik Sedin, who took a brutal tripping penalty 200 feet from his own net with less than five minutes to play? That gave Nashville the powerplay that produced the game-winning goal.

What about Vancouver's loss in Minnesota Wednesday? The Canucks had more penalties for more minutes in that loss. Is that the ref's fault, too?

It's easy to blame the referees when you lose. Did you hear anyone on Nashville crediting the refs for the two points they got? I don't think I have ever heard that.

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MT writes: Funny how these ridiculous calls always come to Vancouver, with teams that are on the NHL's endangered list of teams that have no fan interest, no ticket sales and weak ticket sales in the league benefitting.

Spec says: That was another common theme blowing in from the West coast this week. The referees and the league conspire against the Canucks. The league does not want them to win. We heard evidence all the way back to the '94 Cup, which was rigged so New York could win, to the Canucks playoff loss to Chicago last spring, which also was fixed.

If you truly believe that, you should seek counseling and take a few days off of work. And stay of the internet for a while.

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Joe writes: Burrows should be fined for his outburst. There was a better way to handle it for sure. But he has a valid point, and there is no way he made that up. What is in it for him, especially in such a public forum?

Spec says: By his ruling, it is obvious that Colin Campbell did not, in the end, have a clear picture of what was actually said when Auger spoke to Burrows before the game. All we can do is make an educated guess.

Referees tell me that, when they have a guy who burned them on a dive recently as Burrows did with Auger on Dec. 8, it is appropriate to warn them the next time out that the ref is aware of their tactic. "Perhaps tonight we can play the game straight up. No diving tonight, OK? I'm not in the mood."

Now, Burrows is known to embellish hits. He is know to embellish falls. Is there a chance he embellished "I'm not going to fall for another dive, Alex" into "I'm going to get you tonight, Alex?"

We'll never know. Personally, we'd say there is a chance that is how it went down.

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Blair writes: The only person in all of this who has mentioned the fans is Burrows. What about the family man who scrapes up the dough to take his kids to the game? The refs are there to ensure that the game is played fairly. I am outraged!

Spec says: Are you outraged when a player gets a small push, and flops on to the ice like a live salmon, begging for a call? What does that teach your kids, Blair? That bending the truth is OK, in the name of winning a game?

It is sport. Things don't always go the way you'd like them to. Sometimes your team ha a bad game. Sometimes the refs have a bad game. Sometimes, though it happens very rarely, the sportswriter has something less than great game.

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Will writes: Maybe Burrow's needs to grow up and realize that there are consequences for everything. Quit acting like a jackass and maybe you won't get burned on marginal calls.

Spec says: I like Burrows' game. He could play for my team any time.

But any player who dives now and again — and many of them do, not just Borrows — reaches a point where the pendulum swings the other way. They meet a referee who isn't buying what they're selling, and it comes back to bite them.

That's what happened with Burrows Monday in Vancouver. Ins our opinion, he'd have been better off to shut up and take his medicine.