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Rooting for the Refs

February 17, 2014, 11:44 AM ET [1 Comments]
Paul Stewart
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulstewart22

From the final time l pulled off my sweater as a player and traded it in for the officiating stripes, I have not a personal interest in the final score of a hockey game. I marvel at the skill and speed and emotion on display. I compile mental scouting reports on players. Likewise, I enjoy trying to think along with the coaches and the strategies they employ.

But I don't care about the crest on the competing teams' uniforms. You know who I root for? I root for the officials.

No matter what league or game they are working, I pull for the officials. I live and die a thousand deaths as I watch them from above or from afar. Watching my ECAC Officials and my KHL, MHL and VHL people, I'm silently urging them to adjust their positioning in the corners, to not get caught on the half boards, to avoid pucks hitting them in the feet, and to work as a team.

Above all, I'm rooting for them to get each and every call correct for the good of the game. It's an elusive goal, but a noble one that must be pursued.

Hall of Fame player Mark Howe has said that he used to challenge himself to play a perfect game -- having his stick and body in the right position on every play, putting every pass right on the tape, handling every reachable pass, no unforced turnovers, no communication mix-ups with a teammate, putting every shot attempt on the net.

By Howe's estimation, he was only able to do it a couple times in his entire career and never in back-to-back games. Even when it did happen, there was some good luck involved -- no weird bounces or caroms, etc.

It is not all that different for officials, except that officials are on the ice for the entire game. Even if there are no significant calls missed, there are still almost always sequences here and there were the official could have done something a little better; a little cleaner.

Taking criticism goes with the turf of the officiating job. The funny thing about officiating is that I hear from everyone when refs do "poorly." If there is a problem, the official usually realizes it even before the fans' blood pressure goes up.

My heart goes out to the referee in the U.S. Women's game at the Olympics who got skewered from the too many (wo) men, goal/no goal controversy.

How about when the right call gets made? Is there any praise for the way an unusual play got efficiently deconstructed in the Canada-Finland men's game on Sunday when the puck landed directly on top of the net and Rick Nash knocked it with a high stick off the top of the net, off Tuukka Rask's back and over the goal line?

What about the disallowed Russia go-ahead goal against the U.S. where the net slightly came off its moorings before Fyodor Tyutin scored? Look, the rule is what it is.

Personally, I am of the belief that it's hard enough to score goals as it is for the rulebook to take away goals on plays where there was no unfair advantage/disadvantage. However, no one should blame referees Brad Meier and Markus Vinnerborg for following the IIHF rule book to the letter.

If the goal had been scored in an NHL game, it should have counted. Under NHL rules, the net has to be completely off its mooring to disallow a goal. Pushing the net off intentionally is a penalty under both sets of rules, and is a judgment call for the officials to make.

Guess what: Meier did NOTHING wrong. Don't picket the U.S. embassy, claiming it was a call based on nationalism. Don't pillory him for making a tough, controversial call. Blame the rule book. Actually, as a starting point, perhaps the folks skewering Meier for his call actually might try to read the rule book. Might help the ol' credibility if you're going to criticize.

Officiating is tough, tough work. People scream for "consistency" without realizing that NOTHING about the sport is consistent. The rinks are different. Pucks do not always slide smoothly. The very same on-ice playing/coaching situations might be handled differently even by the same player/coach depending on a variety of circumstances. It's just the nature of the game.

I'll give you an example of inherent inconsistency: rink layouts.

We have some rinks that have timers and visiting team penalty boxes on one side of the ice and the actual home players penalty bench right next to the home team bench across the ice surface. We have many rinks where the penalty box and the home team bench has no partition in between them. We have some benches that have the door right on the blue line and some benches that extend deep in the zone making some line changes potential too many men and more often offsides.

We have benches that are 40 feet long, 26 feet long and anywhere in between. The benches themselves are at various heights and distances from the dasher. We have lots of disparity with a player going in the rear door for a change and a player coming on well up ice at the front door gaining 35+ feet and actually sneaking in behind the defense.

Still think it's easy being an official and trying to make sense of this to apply "consistent" standards?

Final point: We need more people to take up officiating, especially young people. The level of abuse that gets heaped on officials -- and I'm not talking now about the ones at the pro level, I mean at the grass roots -- is a disgrace.

The behavior of some "hockey parents" -- I put that in quotes because those barbarians give a bad reputation to the name, to the chagrin of the majority who are nothing like them -- from youth games right on up is an embarrassment. These people should be ashamed by the way they act toward opposing players, the coaches (of both teams), the officials and even their own kids and their kids' teammates when a mistake is made.

For the good of the game, we need you people in the stands to be patient with these young players and refs as they learn their trade. Let us coach them and speed the along. They want to do well and I see it in their faces.

Coaches need to be more like Bob Johnson and less like Bob Knight. Respect the game, respect the players and respect the officials. That goes for those of us who coach officials as well as those who coach players.

In thinking about what young, developing officials --and players -- go through, I am reminded of Edgar Guest's famous poem "Just a Boy", which I first saw printed on the menu of famous Boston eatery Durgin Park: "Got to understand the lad/ He's not eager to be bad."

That is the mantra of everyone who puts on stripes. Together we can make them better; not by berating, belittling and beating up on these young,noble arbiters. Rather, by understanding, cooperating and being patient as we coach them to be better. It would filter upwards.

I invite you parents to get your children started in officiating regardless of the sport. You both will learn something. When you walk a mile in those officiating moccasins, you begin to understand just how difficult being an arbiter is. Your children might also discover new feelings about the sport that they love to play and make a few bucks along the way.

I'll close this with an anecdote: I once sat next to Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger on an airplane flight. I mentioned that he gave the commencement at my graduation from Penn in ' 76. He asked if I remembered his talk. I told him that I appreciated that it was brief and yes, he had influenced me to take up being a judge.

He asked which court and in what city I sat on the bench. I told him that I sat on a lot of benches in many cities in my life but, as a judge, I roamed across the U.S. and Canada -- and I never got to sit down.

The Chief Justice was polite but puzzled.

"I work in hockey. I am an NHL referee," I told the Chief Justice.

Then I half-jokingly added the following: "The main difference between you and me is that you get three months to write a decision, you have 7 people sitting with you to share the heat, and if people don't like what you decide, they protest out front of your office with signs and petitions."

"As an NHL referee, I get three seconds or less to decide, I am usually alone in a crowded room when I decide and people scream, swear, throw pizza and trash at me where I work."

One other difference, of course, was that his work had perhaps a tad more social and societal relevance. However, I wouldn't trade a minute of my life as an Official for anything.

Listen folks, we need more young people trying to officiate in all sports, hockey, basketball, baseball, softball, tennis.....otherwise, we will never get this better and closer to right.
We need new blood to take up the challenge.

Trust me, the challenge of officiating is worth the investment in time and effort. It's about being a part of the entire game and not just one slice.

************

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.

Stewart is currently working with a co-author on an autobiography.
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