About ten years ago, a practice began to develop where officials would wait until the last possible second to call an Official Time Out (when needed). This would sometimes result in officials standing around waiting for the Line Up clock to wind down to 0 before starting to deal with whatever issue necessitated the OTO. The rationale was that taking OTOs before then effectively added time to the game and waiting reduced the impact of an officiating decision (or issue) on the overall length of play time.
OffCom worked to incorporate this practice into Officiating Practices. At the time, those changes needed to be approved by membership ballot. The practice was resoundingly rejected by the skaters. (While votes are never unanimous, this wasn’t close. I don’t recall the exact numbers, but it was a clear and unarguable majority in opposition.) At the time, skater representatives stated on the forum that they understood it might add time to the overall game, but they didn’t care (or wanted as much play time as possible). The direction from skaters was… “take an OTO as soon as you know you need to.”
Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed a re-emerging practice of officials waiting for the five second warning to call an OTO. Again, sometimes this means that officials are literally standing there watching the clock wind before calling an OTO to fix whatever needs fixing. Personally, I believe this is in direct opposition of member sentiment and direction established through majority vote. But it’s been a while since we took that ballot, so I thought it might be good to check in.
I’m interested in skater opinion here. The reason many officials do this is clear and established (to minimize impact on playtime). Skaters, do you want officials to take an OTO when they know they need it, or would you prefer for them to wait until the five second warning (or for Lineup Time to expire)?
- Take the OTO when you know you need it.
- Wait until the 5 Second warning.
- Wait until Lineup Clock expires.