Questions from an Outsider

[bossman72]

Hello all!

I'm a football and baseball official and I don't know very much about hockey at all. I have a couple incredibly basic questions about the referees:

1) My friend told me that the referees are the only ones that can call penalties and the linesmen only call offside, icing, and break up fights. My question is why are the linesmen restricted from calling penalties? If something happens right in front of them, they're not allowed to call it? That seems odd to me...

2) I noticed everyone has a finger pea whistle. Why no lanyards? Also, why no fox-40's (non-pea whistles)?

Thanks!