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As he is wont to do, especially come playoff time, Pierre McGuire has gone over the top in his praise of certain players, coaches and entire scouting departments and over-the-top in nitpicking officials. I will say, though, that he did in one game hasten to add after a borderline tripping call that super slow-motion, frame-by-frame replays are unfair to officials and the split-second calls they have to make on high speed plays. Unfortunately, he then shifted right back to nitpicking mode.

I realize that, as part of his job, Pierre feels a need to kiss up to coaches, players, GMs and scouts and to try to sell to the audience how terrific they all are, 24/7 and 365 days a year. It's particularly easy to toss some brownie point plaudits to teams' entire scouting departments.

Now let's talk reality. Scouts are just like officials, players, coaches and GMs. There are some superstars of their craft, some who really shouldn't be doing that job and a large majority who work somewhere in between.

Here's the thing about hockey scouts. Most of them are good guys. I've sat three feet away from them for years, and watched what they do. I've realized that there's a huge gap between the ones who excel and the significant population of so-so ones.

There are some truly great ones who are worth their weight in gold to an organization. There are also a whole lot of mediocre ones -- nice enough guys, but not very hard working on game nights -- who think they've done their job simply by keeping to their travel schedule.

They show their faces, drink some free coffee, jot down a few notes and leave before the third period to get a jump on the traffic. I sit and watch these scouts and wonder what they see in players: some clearly good ones they totally miss and these people end up not playing or playing elsewhere, and some they bet on and these are ones that shouldn't play. Others keep getting chance after chance and finally they get bought out of expensive contracts.

I raise this point not to rail on scouts -- again, there are some excellent ones out there, and you can usually tell by their franchise's track record in identifying who can play and who can't. I raise it because even the very best scout have their share of "misses" along the way. We know that and we accept that; even the occasional "big miss."

All officials miss calls from time to time, too. Accept that. It is no different than the coach that coaches the player who just turned the puck over under no pressure or let in the bad goal. It's no different the GM that signs the free agent bust to a big contract or to the scout that pushed to draft or sign the same player.

To err is human, my friends.

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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 serves as director of hockey officiating for the ECAC.

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