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A reader recently asked me whether I found travel more grueling during my playing days, especially in the minor leagues, or during my officiating career. Hockey officials are on the road even more frequently than players. For referees and linesmen, there is no such thing as a homestand or even a home game unless you happen to live in the immediate 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. Strategically, many officials try to live within driving distance of multiple arenas.
For instance, that is why there have been Canadian-born officials who make their residence in New Jersey, It's a manageable commute to work a home game for any of four different teams (Devils, Flyers, Rangers and Islanders) and also workable for rapidly planning to get to DC, Pittsburgh, Buffalo or even Boston or Toronto without much advanced notice.
In my own experience, I always knew the train schedules from Boston as well as the regular flight routes. I kept a travel bag packed and ready to go on demand. These are all good practices I would recommend to any aspiring official: be at the ready and have your own plan for getting from Point A (in this case, your home base) to Point B even on short notice.
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, some years ago, the NHL found an end-around -- with the complicity of people in union leadership positions -- to give extra games above the maximum to specific favored 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 Duchesne 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 assignments 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. A good assignor tries to keep these things in mind, along with cost management, but it's the responsibility of the official to go where assigned.
If you can't handle the rigors of travel that comes with being an official, it's not a profession for you. 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.
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • 
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