Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulstewart22
Many of my favorite anecdotes from my playing and refereeing careers were of things that happened before or after games. The other day, I got an email from my dear friend Romeo Leblanc, reminiscing about some of those stories and reminding me of things I'd forgotten.
During my years as a referee, there were several occasions where irate fans sucker punched me. Romeo reminded me of one of the more memorable times.
I was refereeing an AHL game in Moncton, along with Romeo as one of the linesman. As we left the ice, a guy in the stands threw rubbish at me and then threw a grazing punch at me. I was not a happy man, as I'm sure you could imagine.
I flagged down a RCMP officer and told him what happened. I asked the officer not to arrest the guy but, instead, to bring him down to the officials' locker room. The RCMP agreed on the condition that I promise not to hit the guy.
I retired to the locker room and waited. By the time the knock came on the door, I had my shirt off. I still had the muscular upper body physique that helped me get to the NHL as a fighter, and I answered the door bare-chested.
The guy who had hit me was an older man. He brought his grandson down with him.
"Still want to fight me?" I said.
He gulped, standing face to face now with someone who had previously made his living fighting other professional hockey tough guys.
"No," he said. "Listen, I'm really sorry."
Next, we gave his grandson a game puck and each of the officials introduced ourselves by name. Now the guy really felt about two feet tall. We were all human to him now.
Sheepishly, the man thanked us for the puck for his grandson, apologized again and slinked away. The late, great Bruce Lee used to talk -- both in real life and in the movie Enter the Dragon -- about the "art of fighting without fighting."
In this instance, the man who threw rubbish and a punch was as thoroughly humiliated in front of his grandson as a human being could be: escorted down a hallway by a stern RCMP, made to realize he'd be thumped in a fair fight and then forced to humanize the people he'd just mistreated as we treated his grandson with kindness.
The guy came back to see us next game, by the way. Forgive and forget.
I will be the first person to admit that I have a pretty quick temper at times. But along with the quick temper, I'm also a quick thinker with an innate sense of humor. I suppose you can chalk that combination of traits up to my Irish bloodlines and my Bostonian upbringing.
Back during my playing days, it was hardly uncommon for me to be a healthy scratch or to dress for a game but spend the entire game on the end of the bench without getting a shift (which did not count as a game played for record-keeping and, even worse, for NHL pension calculation purposes).
One time during my WHA stint with the Cincinnati Stingers, coach Jacques Demers had given me an indication that I would dress for a game against the Edmonton Oilers. During the pregame warmup, he changed his mind and informed me as I came up the tunnel that I'd be a scratch.
I was angry.
I stepped back out on the ice to skate the rest of the warmup. Suddenly, an idea came to me. I threw on the brakes, spraying snow in every direction. I saw Glen Sather sitting on the Edmonton bench, making out his lineup card, and the zamboni idling by the open gate. The driver had stepped off and walked away while waiting for the rest of the players to leave the ice.
Since my playing services weren't going to be needed that night, I decided to make myself useful to the game in another way.
In full uniform, I hopped aboard the zamboni, backed it out on the ice and started to resurface it. As I drove past the Edmonton bench, I blared the horn and smiled at Sather. He was started and nearly jumped out of his shoes.
A photo of the rogue zamboni driver made the front page of the local newspaper the next morning. Jacques probably wasn't too happy, but ownership liked the extra bit of publicity.
No such thing as bad publicity, right? Especially when it's free!
Have a good weekend, folks. Be back on Monday.
************
Recent Blogs by Paul Stewart
Penalty Shot Mania Runnin' Wild (or Not?)
Slew Footing, Match Penalties and Aggressors
Making Friends in Bratislava
The Miracle Before the Miracle
Selling the Call: My Issues with the NHL Replay System
Good Morning, Montreal! Know of a Good Dry Cleaner?
Lion Tamers, Staged Fights and Bissonnette
Gettin' Your Kicks
************
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, 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 • 
Join the Discussion:
»