NHL insider calls for a complete overhaul of the league's officiating.

I've covered the National Hockey League for a significant portion of my life now and if there's been one constant through line in my time covering the sport of hockey it has been complaints about the quality of officiating in the game. It seems that, every single season, no matter how the league tries to police their game they end up making a large segment of their fan base unhappy when it comes to the officiating on the ice.

This season has been no exception but it may have proven to the be the season that brought NHL insider Larry Brooks to his breaking point with the league's officials. On Sunday Brooks roasted the league's officiating in a piece he penned for the New York Post, one in which he called for a complete overhaul of the league's officiating department. Brooks began by calling for the removal of both Colin Campbell and Stephen Walkom, both of whom are lifelong NHL loyalists, suggesting that the only way to effect change on a system this broken was from the very top.

From Brooks:

If the same people who have been overseeing the operation for years and years, if the Colin Campbell’s and Stephen Walkom’s of the hockey world are the ones charged with conducting internal reviews and charting the course, the standards will remain indecipherable.

Brooks points to the league's inconsistent application of the rules as well as the seemingly incomprehensible decision making from the league's disciplinary arm for on ice violations, the NHL's Department of Player Safety, as systems that have been broken for far too long. Recent events involving Nathan MacKinnon, Troy Terry, and Tom Wilson all appear to have played a factor in Brooks seemingly reaching the end of his patience on this matter.

Again From Brooks:

If the demands of officiating have become too difficult, then the methodology must be changed. And it must be changed by those who have no stake in maintaining the status quo and by those who are willing to start with a blank screen.

Do you agree with the veteran Rangers reporter? Is it time for a total directional shift when it comes to NHL officiating?