NHL Referee Retires Early After Season-Ending Injury
Photo credit: Scouting the Refs
NHL referee Kevin Pollock has called it a career. He was scheduled to retire this season anyways, but an injury he sustained last month has prevented him from getting the send off he wanted.
NHL referee leaves game with injury, leading to early retirement
Pollock left his last game, a contest between the Ducks and Sabres, early after he was taken out by Sabres forward Jordan Greenway. The play was an accident on Greenway's part and there was certainly no ill-intention there. Unfortunately, there just is no where for the refs to go sometimes and Pollock got his legs taken out from underneath him.
Jordan Greenway took out Referee Kevin Pollock. 1 Ref game #LetsGoBuffalo #FlyTogether
The play did not look good initially and today the worst was confirmed. The injury to the veteran referee proved to be career-ending as Pollock will not return to officiate another game this season.
Referee Kevin Pollock - already slated to retire at the end of the NHL season - reportedly suffered a career-ending knee injury last month during a game between the Anaheim Ducks and Buffalo Sabres:
Pollock was a regular part of the NHL's playoff team meaning he will have to be replaced this time around. The veteran officiated more than 200 NHL playoff games and more than 1800 career games total. That being said, he was not going to officiate in the playoffs this year anyways, as the NHL has a rule that states officials must retire before the playoffs.
Had no idea this was Kevin Pollock's retirement season. NHL officials don't officiate into the playoffs during their final season, so I'm curious as to who will be getting Kevin's post season games this year.
Pollock's presence will be missed, although many fans won't be sad to see him leave the league. After all, being a referee is a thankless job and the refs often take a lot of abuse from fans both online and at the rink.
| POLL | ||
21 MARS | 105 ANSWERS NHL Referee Retires Early After Season-Ending Injury Do you think that the NHL should bring Pollock back to referee one more game next season? | ||
| Yes | 52 | 49.5 % |
| No | 53 | 50.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
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