Head KHL referee says they make fewer mistakes than NHL counterparts because they're punished for them

The head referee for the Russian-based KHL says he believes they are far fewer officiating mistakes in that league when compared to the NHL.

"I always compare refereeing in the NHL and the KHL. I don't want to evaluate my North American colleagues, but, believe me, the number of errors in our country and overseas is fundamentally different. There are fewer here," Alexei Anisimov told Sport-Express.ru.

Anisimov says one of the reasons for that is KHL officials are punished for mistakes and rewarded for good games.

"The way the [KHL] officials progress through the playoffs allows them to get a new contract next season. They think a lot about this. Of course, I would like to see less pressure on our officials, but so far this is the situation."


As for the punishment system, Anisimov says it's been around a long time.

"Players don't know that officials have bonuses in their salary. Depending on the job, the referee may not receive bonuses for the season. If the referee has a bad game, one to four percent of the annual contract is removed from him. Hockey players do not have this: no matter how they play, they receive a fixed part by their agreement in full," Anisimov explained.

The complaints about officials in the NHL have been steady the last couple of seasons. Tim Peel was the only one publicly punished. He was caught up in a hot mic scandal where he said a penalty he called on the Nashville Predators "wasn't much, but I wanted to get a f---ing penalty against Nashville early." Peel was let go. However, he was very close to retirement anyway.

Source: Sport-Express.ru