Heartfelt congratulations go out to my longtime friend and colleague, Brian Murphy, for recently working his 1,500th game as an NHL linesman and also to another U.S.-born former officiating teammate of mine, Thor Nelsen.
In last night's Jets-Avalanche game in Winnipeg, Thor worked his 1,000th NHL game. The first came shortly after the end of the lockout in the 2004-05 season at the old Chicago Stadium in a game against Calgary. Hammer of the gods, indeed.
As for Murph, or Bob's Big Boy as I call him, I go way back with the pride of Dover, New Hampshire. I was the referee in his first game, when the Washington Capitals played host to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 7, 1988.
I'll tell you about the first time I met Murph. We were slated to work a September AHL game together in Hershey, PA, and met up in Harrisburg before we drove to the game. Across the street from our hotel was a Bob's Big Boy restaurant with a huge All-You-Can-Eat Buffet sign in the window. The price was agreeable.
So we sit down in the place and Brian, a strapping tall guy who stands about 6-foot-2 and weighed about 230 pounds at the time, proceeds to consume mass quantities. Two big salads heaping with bacon pieces, cheese, croutons and dressing on the top. Two bowls of soup. Then to top it all off, he devours not one but two Bob's Big Boy burgers.
I watched in amazement as Murph kept packing away the vittles.
"Is that what you normally eat?" I asked.
"Yes," he said. "I'm hungry."
I locked eyes with Brian, just as he popped another french fry into his mouth.
"If you keep doing that, you're gonna to eat yourself right out of this business," I said. "I'll tell you what, though. If you want, I might be able to get you a job as the Big-Boy Bob on top of the restaurant."
Nowadays, Brian and I chuckle over that story. Anyone who knows what Murph has done in the years since then knows that he subsequently decided to get real, real serious about his conditioning. He became one of the best-conditioned athletes -- rivaling or exceeding even many players -- in the NHL.
Brian and Thor are both outstanding linesmen; which is an extremely difficult, taxing and thankless job. Our former NHL officiating director, Bryan Lewis, was disdainful of the work linesmen did relative to the game's referees.
Lewis use to say, "I can find linesmen on a street corner and no one would know the difference."
I never saw it that way at all. Good linesmen are absolutely critical to the success of an officiating team, and can set the referee up to look good. I viewed us as brothers in arms, surrounded on hostile turf on all sides.
The linesmen are crucial to the flow of play. While folks gripe about some offside calls and icing rulings, the fact is that they usually get the lion's share of blink-of-the-eye plays correct. They physically break up the fights between some big, angry combatants. There are linemen -- Jay Sharrers leaps to mind immediately -- who are incredible athletes, tremendous skaters and physically stronger than many players.
Many of my closest friends within the hockey world are my former officiating teammates who worked the lines. Guys like Dan Schachte, Pat Dapuzzo and Mark Pare are like family to me. I remain close with Mike Cvik, who is still going strong in the NHL. I owe debts of gratitude to Leon Stickle, Gerard Gauthier, Ray Scapinello, Kevin Collins, Randy Mitton, the late John D'Amico and a minor league linesman by the name of Romeo LeBlanc. Kevin Collins' brother Brian was another one who assisted me early in my officiating career. Danny Murphy helped me out in Rochester.
These guys and more were all a huge help to me, both on and off the ice. In private conversations, they often helped me calm down when my tempah -- sorry, Bostonian slip there, I meant temper -- would get riled and I'd want to deck someone.
There are so many stories to share about these guys. I could blog for months and months about them and still barely scratch the surface! For now, here's a good one about Mike Cvik.
Mike hails from Alberta. Early in my officiating career, he drove me around western Canada. When he came to the eastern U.S. for the first time, I thought it was only right if I took him around New York City. I told him we'd go all around the city -- a bit by public transit to cover long distances but mostly by walking around in various areas.
I was wearing a trench coat in the somewhat chilled weather as we walked down 42nd Street. Now, this was back before 42nd Street was revitalized. These were the days when the locale was truly something like what was depicted in Taxi Driver. Mike had never seen anything quite like it.
As we are passing along, this shady character says hello to me. He was obviously a dealer and was probably pimping as well.
"Hey, how ya been?" he says.
"Not too bad," I said. "How's business?"
"Aw, real good, real good," he said.
As we walked on, Mike turned to me with a disbelieving look on his face.
"Do you really know that guy?" he asked.
"No," I said. "But he thinks we're cops."
No one else disturbed us as we walked onward. As someone did police work for a while after my playing days and who also understands the interactions between hockey officials and those we patrol on the ice, I will tell you that the two realms really aren't all that different.
Have a good weekend, everyone. I'll be back on Monday.
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Recent Blogs by Paul Stewart
NHL Officials: Americans Still Have a Hard Time Being Hired
Crisp Thoughts
Olympic Officials: Jeux San Frontieres?
Thornton Went After the Wrong Guy
Stevie Why?
Careful With That Stick, Eugene
Hockey Barns and Broken Zambonis
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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 only 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, while also maintaining 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.
Stewart is currently working with a co-author on an autobiography. 
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • 
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