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A Question of Perspective

April 18, 2014, 9:43 AM ET [4 Comments]
Paul Stewart
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulstewart22

One of the key reasons why I dislike the NHL's current off-site video review "War Room" system is that the on-ice official who is right there to see the play is not part of the final decision. There are times when replay angles are deceptive.

Under the older in-house replay system, there was better communication between the officials on the ice and the replay folks about what actually happened on the play. Let me give you a prime -- and painful -- example.

My friend and linesman teammate official Pat Dapuzzo used to say that no one on our staff worked the net as closely as I did. That was a lesson learned after my first game in the NHL when my positioning, while good, could have been better. I would then have seen the puck and NOT disallowed the Bruins winning goal vs Canadiens.

It was a lesson that I took on the ice with me for the rest of my career.

One night at Madison Square Garden, officiating supervisor Matt Pavelich and the Replay Judge phoned down to me after a whistle to tell me I had missed a goal. The puck that had just been shot at the Ranger goal and then bounced crazily out toward center ice, in fact, had hit the twine.

"It's a goal," they said.

I told them that I couldn't agree but it was their call to make. I asked them, prior to actually stamping the shot a goal, to rewind the tape again, to look and see exactly where I was standing.

They did and said," You are right next to the post with your hand on the crossbar."

I then asked them why they though it was a goal. They responded by saying that the puck was shot with speed and it must have hit underneath the cross bar because it came out dead and took a funny bounce as a puck would, had it hit the twine.

"Did you clearly see the puck go in the net?" I asked.

"No, your arm and hand were in the way."

I did not argue that point but then added, " All that's true, but it didn't hit the net or the pipe."

"How do you know? It must have," they surmised.

"Well, I know because the puck hit my hand and broke my right index finger. It's no goal, trust me!"

The no-goal call on the ice stood. To this day, if you want to see that crooked finger, come to my country club, where it will be firmly attached to a driver in about two weeks.

This is not only the case in hockey, by the way. As most of you know, in addition to being a member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame as a Stanley Cup winning coach and a referee in four Stanley Cup Final series, my grandfather Bill Stewart was a Major League Baseball umpire who worked in four World Series.

Most famously, my grandfather was the second base umpire in Game One of the 1948 World Series between the eventual champion Cleveland Indians and the Boston Braves. With the game still scoreless in the eighth inning, Indians pitcher Bob Feller attempted to pick off baserunner Phil Masi at second base. It was a close play as Lou Boudreau applied the tag as Masi tried to scramble back to the bag.

My grandfather called Masi safe. Boudreau and the Indians argued the call. Subsequently, batter Tommy Holmes hit a single and Masi scored what proved to be the only run of the game.

After the game, newspaper photographs appeared to show Boudreau tagging Masi before the runner got back to the base. That stirred up the Indians fans even more.

Thing was: the photographic angles were skewed. My grandfather had the best possible angle to see whether or not Boudreau's glove was actually tagging Masi, and the umpire was only a few feet away.

To his dying day in 1964, Bill Stewart Sr. always insisted that he made the right call on the play. One time when I was very young, I asked him about the play and about the photos that appeared to contradict his ruling.

Now, my grandfather was an extremely honest man. If he was wrong, he admitted it. If he wasn't sure, he said he wasn't sure. Even in the privacy of talking to his young grandson, he told me he'd made the right call on the tag play.

"Photos can lie," he told me. "It can be unintentional or it can be intentional. Maybe the angle just isn't the best one. Maybe the photo was doctored to sell more newspapers. All I know is, I was five feet away and I saw what happened very clearly. No one else had my vantage point."

Since the Indians won the Series -- their last championship to date -- guys like Feller and Boudreau were able to smile about the play years later (even if they continued to insist that the umpire got it wrong). My grandfather and the Indians' two Hall of Fame members made some money together in later years talking about the Series on the banquet circuit, especially around Cleveland.

My grandfather was a wise man in many, many ways. I never forgot what he told me about that long-ago tag play in the Fall Classic. When I later started my own refereeing career, I learned that he knew what he was talking about with cameras not always having the best perspective on a close play.

Grandpa was right, as usual.

*********

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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