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It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what Montreal Canadiens forward Brandon Prust was trying to accomplish with his antics during and after Game Two of his team's Eastern Conference Semifinal series with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He was trying to distract attention away from the way his team (and Prust himself) came unglued and got dismantled in falling behind two games to none in the series.

Prust locked in on a convenient target: referee Brad Watson. Sensitive soul that he is, Prust claims that Watson was verbally abusive to him in the first period without provocation. In the third period, Prust's equipment-throwing tirade earned him an early shower.

I have known Brad Watson for many years. He's a reserved and quiet guy, highly intelligent and a solid referee. To me, assigning Brad to referee a game is the officiating equivalent of slipping on a comfortable pair of shoes. You can trust the fit and know the quality is pretty good. He is one of the current NHL referees that I consider to be among the better and more consistently solid ones in the game.

I have never seen Brad as animated as he was last night. While I suppose it is possible that Brad went off on Prust without significant verbal provocation from the player or the Montreal bench, I tend to doubt it. Brad being the aggressor in a confrontation would be significantly out of character on the ice as well as off-ice. However, officials are human beings, too. There is a lot of pressure and friction on the ice, especially during the playoffs, and no one is immune.

Nevertheless, referees need to skate away from these situations whenever possible. Say as little as possible -- be clear, concise and direct that enough is enough, and give the player or coach the choice of cooperating and staying in the game or leaving the premises. I was as human as anyone else and not infallible, but I learned over time that nothing good comes out of debating the matter and an official should never goad a player.

In this case, I am confident that Watson was not goading, but reacting. Perhaps Brad overreacted, perhaps not.

What Prust conveniently forgets is that Watson didn't bang him with 10-minute and game misconducts early in the game when Prust was already running around like an idiot. The player stayed in the game. It was only much later on, when Prust blatantly went way over the line that he got tossed.

I call that self-determination, Prustie, not a ref who "tries to play God." You opted to be an an even bigger jackass, so live with the consequences. You've also made yourself no better than Alex Burrows, so congratulations for stooping to that level.

Watson let some swear words fly and it hurt your feelings? Poor baby. Maybe your coach can buy you a slushie to soothe you.

Friction is part of hockey, and profanity in the heat of battle -- or even in casual conversation in the locker room, the bar stool and the airplane or bus ride-- is much a part of the language of the game as sticks and pucks. I'm sure there was nothing Brad said that Prust himself hasn't heard (and said) countless times over the years. Prust is far, far, far from a saint out there on the ice as he showed last night and many other times in the past.

There is longstanding code that what's said on the ice should stay there, at least until you can laugh about it years later. Keep it out of the papers and the TV networks, and it's all forgotten about the next time around.

As an official, I had players not only cuss my very existence but a few who challenged me to fight. I didn't rat those guys out and, in one case, even told his coach to let it slide. Yes, there were times that I got into it with players and especially coaches, but there was never a carryover. Likewise, when I told a diver or two they better get up before I accidentally skated over their bleepin' face, they knew I wasn't actually going to do it.

I did, however, expect that it be kept out of the press. I did the same for them even at a time when officials were not forbidden to speak to the media and any beat reporter worth his salt knew which local establishments to find us after a game for a more informal discussion.

To me, this is the real issue here. Prust stepped way further out of line after the game than he did during it.

Tell you a little story: one time I refereed a Chicago Blackhawks game where Denis Savard ripped me up one side and down the other. I didn't toss him. I simply said, "Have a good night, Denis" because I knew something he didn't know. Due to a scheduling change, I would also be refereeing the Blackhawks' game the next night.

I could hardly wait to see the look on Savard's face during the warmup. As soon as he saw me, he made a beeline for me and started hollering at me again.

I went over to the Chicago bench and told them we had a problem. Savard was going to receive 12 minutes worth of penalties to start the game and the Blackhawks were going to start the game shorthanded as a result. Yes, at the 0:00 mark of the first period -- just as there are penalties that can be applied after the final buzzer -- Savard got a two and a 10.

He still didn't get the message. As he exited the box at the first stoppage after the 12-minute mark of the first period, he started right after me again. So I informed him he was sitting for another 12. That's 24 minutes of penalties to one of the Hawks' key players without skating a single shift -- and even the Chicago guys knew Savard was in the wrong here. Everyone but Denis himself.

"I'm going to tell Jim Gregory, you bleep-bleep mother bleeping son of a bleep," Savard said.

"Be my bleepin' guest," I said. "You do that. While you're at it, how 'bout you bleepin' tell him I didn't [eject] your ass last night. Tell him you were the one who bleepin' came after me in warmups tonight and that you're still in this bleepin' game now. You could have got banged. You weren't. Hey, you forget. It's not just the coach who decides if you can play. I can do it, too."

Denis and I never had another serious problem after that. He never griped to the press. None of it went any further than what was said on the ice. It was over and done. These days when I see Denis, we can still shake hands and chuckle about those long-ago nights.

Call it "old school" if you like, but that was how we did things and it worked.

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Paul Stewart holds the distinction of being the first U.S.-born citizen to make it to the NHL as both a player and referee. On March 15, 2003, he became the first American-born referee to officiate in 1,000 NHL games.

Today, Stewart is an officiating and league discipline consultant for the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and serves as director of hockey officiating for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).

The longtime referee heads Officiating by Stewart, a consulting, training and evaluation service for officials. Stewart also maintains a busy schedule as a public speaker, fund raiser and master-of-ceremonies for a host of private, corporate and public events. As a non-hockey venture, he is the owner of Lest We Forget.

In addition to his blogs for HockeyBuzz every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, Stewart writes a column every Wednesday for the Huffington Post.