On Wednesday I had a chance to have a sit down conversation with retired NHL referee Kerry Fraser. A few weeks ago I contacted Kerry to confirm some facts for my “HHOF Making the Case” blog of which he was the subject. He was gracious enough to help me with that and supply me with a picture to enhance the blog. So when I approached him to do an interview for the site he invited me to do so during the 1st round of the playoffs when he was in Toronto.
For those who don’t know, Kerry Fraser was an NHL referee for the better part of 30 years. During his time in the NHL, he set the record for the most regular season games worked with 1,904 and the most post season games worked with 261. In addition he was selected to referee 12 different Stanley Cup Finals and in his first he became the youngest referee ever to do so.
Below is the first of three parts of our conversation which will be posted here over the next week.
For more information on Fraser’s overall case for the Hockey Hall of Fame, you can view it here:
HHOF Making the Case: Kerry Fraser --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adam Kirshenblatt: How has officiating changed since you were in the NHL?
Kerry Fraser: The game has changed. Officiating changes as the game evolves. The 70s had brawling which was legislated out through rules. Then we had the stick work where the rules change to curtail that because the courts of the land were getting involved. Roy McMurtry, the Attorney General of Ontario, was threatening to prosecute players for fighting. Don Maloney was charged when he beat up Brian Glennie, Dino Ciccarelli with his stick slash on Luke Richardson. The keepers of the game have a tendency to react to an external stimulus. That forces a change in approach in the rules and the enforcement of the rules.
We went from bench clearing brawls and stick swinging and imposed a knee-jerk reaction of a major and a game misconduct. That backfired on them because star players were being ejected, such as Denis Savard who got a major and a game misconduct and ultimately a 1 game suspension because of accumulated game misconducts. So they pull in the reins on that, where they said “OK for accidental high sticks let’s call a double minor, keep the player in the game.” They’ve dummied it down.
When they went into the long process of trying to eliminate restraining, led by Mario Lemieux. Brendan Shanahan put together a group for how the game needed to be changed for when we came back [from the 2005 lockout]. So when we came back there was a new standard, a new NHL with no restraining. Players who couldn’t hook, hold, or cheat were flushed out because they couldn’t compete anymore. The standard was adhered to with a lot of penalties. However the standard had slid from that period to now. The expectation has gone back to “let the players decide the outcome”. This isn’t healthy because you can’t win it, you can’t compete in a juggling game. You can’t keep the balls in the air as a referee. Players need to know what’s a penalty and what isn’t and then they have to be responsible and accountable for their actions. Not the referee that decides and hand picks infractions. One is as bad as the other but some are called and some aren’t.
Adam Kirshenblatt: Do you think that slide that you mentioned has to do with a change in focus that is on concussions and hits to the head?
Kerry Fraser: I have a perspective on that and the league doesn’t like it. When we came back from the lock out, the little touches, hooks and little stuff that was now being called forced the players to play differently. They were less physical. The NHL then wanted to encourage body contact, but they didn’t watch clutch, grab, hold. They wanted speed and skill but if they think about it from a player’s perspective they will think “Well if this little touch is a penalty, what will happen if I really nail the guy?” So they backed off because the game was losing its physicality. So the keepers of the game, hockey operations, decided that any type of hit was welcome… it was ok. Now players with speed, who were unable to be restrained and contained, were hitting guys and blasting them. The sense that the officials had in regards to game misconducts, the hockey operations department had them rescinded. So now we’re not supposed to call that, they want hits so we gotta give them hits. That’s where the culture of hitting changed. It changed from Bob Gainey, Craig Ramsey, Guy Carbonneau, great checkers who used angles to get the puck. That was the objective of the check, puck possession. It changed to the big train wreck, Sports Center kinds of plays. Players don’t keep their skates on the ice, they elevated everything. They put all their momentum upward and elevated their height. That height elevation results in contact to the head in some form.
Classic example recently was Brooks Orpik. With 5 games remaining in the Blackhawks season he hit Jonathan Toews. Toews had given the puck up, lowered his posture, granted, but the puck was gone. Why did Brooks Orpik have to hit him so hard? It wasn’t about separating him from the puck, the puck was gone. It was about punishing him. So what he did was he left his feet where because he hit Toews body then head, it was deemed a good hockey hit. Which sickens me because if they suspended Orpik for that type of thing, yes it will bring down the physicality, but it will protect the players heads. This is what we should be concerned about. I’m passionate about this and it’s a joke.
I had two game misconducts that were rescinded that Ron MacLean showed on Hockey Night in Canada when my book launched. I had spoken at the Mayo Clinic in regards to hockey hits and concussion with all the top docs around the world. I said this is the reason it’s happening. Here’s two that I was told were good hockey hits and they are bad. So the league doesn’t like me, and quite honestly, it could keep me out of the Hockey Hall of Fame because of certain individuals that don’t really like what I have to say.
Fraser on the ice listening to the national anthems
Adam Kirsehenblatt: What are your thoughts on the 2 referee system?
Kerry Fraser: It has to mesh, you’ve got to work at it like defense pairing play. You’ve got to feed off the other guy and not make it a competition on who’s making the calls. Some guys do.
With the red line gone, and the stretch pass from one blue line to the other, one referee can’t do the job anymore. If you want to eliminate and maintain a standard on restraining fouls, the best view is the front view. It’s like broadcasting a game with one camera, you can only follow the play and nothing else. You’d miss so much. There needs to be a mesh of judgement and gap coverage. As the play moves and officials move within the play, the back end referee has the luxury of time. The guy down low is in the action and things happen more quickly. The different perspective is really needed in the game, but it takes teamwork for the job to be done. You can’t have a competition for calling penalties.
You can’t have a guy 100 feet away blowing the whistle when I’m 15 feet away looking right at it shaking my head thinking it’s not a call. That drove me nuts, and it happened a lot. Finally I said before the game “listen, my judgement’s not bad and I know yours isn’t either. If you’re looking at a play and you’re 15 feet from it, and I’m looking from the back door and I see you’re focused on it and you deem that not to be a penalty, from 100 feet away I’m going to trust your judgement. Unless it’s a “must call” and that’s on me. On the other hand if I’m standing 15 feet from it and I’m looking at it. If I deem it not to be a penalty, chances are it’s not a penalty and that’s on me too. I’ll take the hit.
I think officials need to better coached and hasn’t happened. On “C’mon Ref” I see the same kind of mistakes on too regular a basis. If I were administrating this group, I would sent out footage in which if there’s a situation I would make a determination and let everyone know so it doesn’t happen again. So that if this should happen to you, this is what should be done. I would communicate that to teams and coaches so they can communicate that to the players. Show a clip where we can move closer together as the season moves forward and closer to the playoffs. The rules shouldn’t change in the playoffs, but the standard sure does. That’s not right, just because the game is more emotional it doesn’t mean the game has to be officiated with less control.
Adam Kirshenblatt: How can the coach help you referee the game?
Kerry Fraser: If I can control the guy behind the bench, get him to control himself, I can control his players. It’s his job to control his players. If he doesn’t then I have to, but in order for him to do that, he has to have control himself.
My first trip in the Western League that year I was signed in 1973. I had a game where the home team was getting their butts kicked and they were frustrated. I had the little man syndrome, I had a chip on my shoulder. I was fresh from playing and I wasn’t going to be intimidated and this is the 70s were intimidation was the golden rule. So every time a goal was scored the home team got pissed off, they got a misconduct, fans would litter the ice. Finally I had them about 3 or 4 deep in the penalty box, the game is lost. The coach sends his captain over and he says “Mr. Referee, my coach wants to know if he can get a penalty for thinking”. I said “Well if he doesn’t think out loud he’ll probably be ok.” The captain then says “Well he thinks you’re a [enter explicit here]”. So I started laughing and looked over to the coach and he saw me laugh and smile and then he cracked a smile and started to laugh. It broke the ice.
It taught me a good lesson, not to take myself so seriously.
Part Two of this conversation will be posted in here on Tuesday.
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