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Travel is a fact of life in hockey. That's especially true for the officials. For referees and linesmen, there is no such thing as a homestand or even a home game (unless you happen to live in the vicinity of a particular arena).
When I was an an NHL referee, it was typical that I would travel well over 100,000 miles per season, spanning coast to coast in the United States and Canada. Now that I am doing double-duty in the KHL and ECAC with multiple trans-atlantic trips and travel throughout the various pro and junior Russian leagues and Europe, the miles add up even faster. As a matter of fact, tomorrow I am heading back for North America.
As someone who is a history buff, one of the benefits of seeing so many different places is to near so many historically important places around the world. For example, here is the spot in Khimki (a northwestern suburb of Moscow), located just 14 miles away away from the center of Moscow where the Russians stopped the Germans' Panzer tanks during the Axis Powers' closest advance to Moscow during World War II.
There isn't much time for site-seeing in this line of work. However, when the opportunity presents itself, it's enriching to see places like these up close.
At any rate, getting back to the topic at hand, a HockeyBuzz reader recently asked me how travel assignments for NHL officials work.
NHL referees are supposed to work 73 regular season games per season. Linesmen are supposed to work 75 games maximum. I say "supposed to" because the NHL found an end-around -- with the complicity of people in union leadership positions -- to give extra games above the maximum to specific officials as a way for these people to earn extra money without giving across-the-board raises.
Every NHL owner pays into the league's officiating budget. Theoretically, referees are scheduled to work close to the same number of games in each building in the NHL over the course of the regular season. That means that officials are on the road for most of the month throughout the season.
Of course, whenever someone travels that often -- whether by plane or car -- there are bound to be occasional problems, especially during the winter months. I could probably write a blog for Weather.com on travel through snowstorms and other extreme and unusual conditions.
For example, one time I worked a Carolina Hurricanes game where there was snow in the forecast -- a bit higher than normal for North Carolina, but nothing too far out of the ordinary. Surprise! Raleigh got well over two feet of snow. My fellow officials and I were stranded at our hotel, the Crabtree Marriott, for several days. As a matter of fact, the hotel ran out of food and beverages because no supplies could be delivered.
Before the Hartford Whalers relocated to Carolina and became the Hurricanes, I worked a very lengthy game one night between the Whalers and Ottawas Senators. It was a penalty filled game that lasted well over three hours.
At one juncture of the second period, Senators defenseman Steve Duchense recklessly cut Hartford's Nelson Emerson with a high stick. I gave him a double minor. Hartford's Keith Primeau scored two goals during the back-to-back power plays.
Later in the game, Hartford's Kent Manderville's stick nicked Daniel Alfredsson, drawing a trickle of blood. I was NEVER a referee than believed that any trace of blood should automatically mean a lengthier penalty. It depended on the play and exactly how the stick was wielded. Manderville's infraction was not as bad as Duchense's, so I penalized it accordingly. I gave Mandy two minutes.
Senators coach Jacques Martin was not a happy man. I explained my reasoning for the two calls but he did not accept it. We went nose-to-nose, although I let him have his say on behalf of his team without issuing a bench minor.
By the time the interminable game finally ended, I realized that I had no prayer of making my commercial flight. I found Jacques and asked him if the two linesmen (Greg Devorski and Conrad Hache) and I could take the charter flight to Ottawa along with the team.
Martin said yes.
That's how it goes in hockey. Fans only see an argument on the ice and figure that the "grudge" must carry over for years on end. In reality, what usually happens is that once the game is over, everyone calms down and moves on.
Sometimes, the assigments an official gets come about under strange circumstances. I remember one time during my minor league officiating days where a power outage in Binghamton caused a game between the Whalers and Nova Scotia to be held up -- and eventually suspended -- midway through the second period. Initially, the word was that the power would be restored within a hour.
Turned out it took until 2 a.m. the next morning, and the weekend game was suspended until late Monday afternoon. Rob Shick worked the first 33 minutes of the game before it was suspended. On Monday, I was there to work the remainder of the game.
As an official, the bottom line is that you go wherever the league sends you. It doesn't matter if the distance is inconvenient or if the logistics are grueling -- or even if you suspect that the league deliberately made your schedule as geographically inconvenient to you as possible (as Bryan Lewis was fond of doing to the officials whom he didn't like).
If you can't handle all the travel that comes with being an official, you are in the wrong business. Get yourself to the game and treat it like it's the most important game in the world that night. You owe that to the game and to the profession.
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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.
Stewart is currently working with a co-author on an autobiography.
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • 
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