In the 2014-2015 BCHL season, Charlie Zucarrini was playing for the Trail Smoke Eaters and was a team captain. In the above video, Zucarrini was assessed a match penalty during a game against the Coquitlam Express for slashing the referee. As you can see he slashed the ref due to the fact the ref got in his way.
This is an ultimate throwback moment in Junior Hockey due to the fact that you never really see this type of thing. I will say that it appears Zucarrini regrets his decision right after and knows that he messed up. Just a moment of anger that we have all had when we flub the puck and turn it over, so we blame it on the ref, it’s the easiest thing to do. If it’s not the ref, then it’s the next guy in the line and we all have that teammate that it’s easy to push all the blame onto.
Zuccarini was suspended by the league for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs for slashing the referee. He received a match penalty for Abuse of Officials and was ejected from the game, rightfully so. Even though this is a great throwback clip, doesn’t mean this should be tolerated. Now more than ever we need to respect officials and make sure to keep them around.
Even though this was a pretty big blow to Zuccarini’s career, he was able to continue his career and play for Arizona State the next season (2015-16), then transfer to finish his college career with Trinity College at the NCAA DIII level.
