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The Stew: Bob Sloan, Cagey, Will vs. Skill

October 17, 2022, 12:44 PM ET [2 Comments]
Paul Stewart
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • RSSArchiveCONTACT
RIP, Bob Sloan

Condolences go out to the family of Bob Sloan, who passed away this past week. Bob was one of the many hockey lifers who help make our sport special. He was a good man who loved the game and was someone you looked forward to seeing.

Bob spent more than a decade as a referee. In 1961, Bob was a student at Kirkland Lake Collegiate Institute in Ontario. NHL Referee-in-Chief Carl Voss invited him to train as an on-ice official. He learned the old-fashioned way, working countless games at lower levels across Canada and the United States, from minor hockey and major junior to the professional minor leagues and then to the NHL over the course of a decade. When Voss retired in 1966, he proclaimed that several of his proteges then officiating in the minor leagues were ready for the NHL and would lead the next generation of referees: Bruce Hood, Wally Harris, Ron Wicks, Tom Smith and Sloan.

Sloan officiated in the NHL from the mid-60s to early 1970s. He once had a verbal sparring match with Phil Esposito that turned physical when Espo struck him (the story made Sports Illustrated's March 31, 1969 edition). More notably, Bob was a founding member of the NHL Referees and Linesmen's Association.

After the creation of the World Hockey Association, Bob traded off the black-and-white NHL stripes for the red-and-white WHA stripes. He refereed in the WHA during the inaugural 1971-72 season through the 1973-74 campaign.

Following his on-ice career, Bob eventually settled in Tennessee and worked in home construction contracting. He was the owner and president of Artistic Builders, LLC. That was his primary source of income for more than two decades. However, hockey always remained deep in his heart.

When the NHL expanded to Nashville in 1998-99, Bob became an off-ice official -- video goal judge to be specific -- at the Predators home games at Nashville Arena (now called Bridgestone Arena). He spent more than two decades in that capacity.

Bob's story was a particularly notable one because of his past ties to the NHL and WHA as a referee. At heart, though, his story was very much like those of the off-ice officials across the NHL and other leagues. He did it out of love for the game, and the people in the game.

One of the things that I loved the most about my job when I was a player, referee and supervisor was seeing and chatting with the off-ice officials, security guards and other folks who worked at the various rinks on game nights. Almost uniformly, they became friendly faces -- among the few people in the building genuinely happy when the league's on-ice officials came
around -- that you looked forward to seeing when your relentless travel schedule brought you to that city. Many of the off-ice officials have been local on-ice officials, youth hockey coaches, or simply proud hockey parents and grandparents. Just good, salt-of-the-earth people for whom coming to the rink was a joy.

Bob Sloan will be missed by all who knew him. His name may not be familiar to the average current day hockey fan, but he's one of the many who contributed to the fabric of our sport. It's that love of the sport that forms bonds far more important than which team won or lost in that city on Date A and B. Those details fade over time, but the memories of the friends you made live on forever.

A Cagey Tale

It's been nearly a year since former NHL player, head coach and pro scout Bob "Cagey" McCammon passed away at the age of 80. I thought about Bob recently when Pat Quinn's name came up in a conversation.

Cagey and Quinner were each other's successors in the Philadelphia Flyers organization. Bob was the head coach of the Calder Cup champion Maine Mariners at the time Pat retired from his playing career. When the legendary Fred Shero left the Flyers to accept the dual role as head coach and general manager of the New York Rangers, Cagey was promoted from Maine's head coach to the Flyers head coach for the 1978-79 season. Quinn became the Mariners' head coach.

Midway through the season, the Flyers made a change. McCammon and Quinn switched places, with Bob going back to coach Maine and Pat becoming the Flyers' coach. Several years later, after the Flyers dismissed Pat, Bob was hired for a second stint coaching Philadelphia (and later, for one year, also taking on general manager duties when Hockey Hall of Famer Keith Allen went into semi-retirement).

Cagey and the Big Irishman are always linked in my mind. By the way, the next time you fuss about teams using the vague terminology of "upper-body injury" and "lower-body injury" to describe why a player is out without telling you the specific issue, you have the late Pat Quinn to thank. He's the one that put it in the hockey lexicon. I digress.

I was still in my playing days when McCammon was coaching Maine. The team had future NHL executive Brian Burke on the roster. They also had the late Dave Hoyda, who'd been groomed as the next-generation replacement for my old friend Dave "the Hammer" Schultz (right down to being presented with the No. 8 jersey when he debuted for the Flyers). Burke, who sported bushy hair and a fu-manchu mustache in those days, tried to look intimidating and menacing but Hoyda was the real deal.

I had some wars with the Maine Mariners. I wanted to fight Hoyda, but McCammon kept sending out Burke when I was on the ice.

I said to Bob, "If you keep sending Burke out, I'm gonna climb over the bench and punch you instead!"

I finally did get my fight with big Dave. I caught him at the end of a shift, when I'd just gotten on the ice. He was tired but he fought me near the benches. It was nothing personal, of course. I just wanted to go with the guy who was touted as Schultzy's replacement.

It was a different world in hockey back then. RIP, Cagey, Quinner, and Dave Hoyda.

Will Can Still Beat Skill

One thing that has not changed in hockey: The age-old adage that will beats skill when the more skilled player doesn't work for it. I've always had tremendous respect for players who make it the NHL because they want it a little more and work for it a little harder than a counterpart who might have more pure skill but a fraction of the work ethic.

I detest when the hockey hipster crowd -- the types that "watch" hockey on a spreadsheet and fancy themselves more knowledgeable about the game than those who've spent a lifetime in it -- say things on anti-social media like "So-and-so is not good at hockey." Oh, really? Do you have ANY clue about just how good of a player and how hard you have to work to do it professionally? Saying crap like so-and-so NHL player isn't good at hockey shows only your own ignorance.

The heartbeat of hockey isn't just its skill players. It is also the role players who go in the trenches to win the small battles (over and over) that add up to big plays by the skill guys. The players who may not have the prettiest boutique stats or big point totals but do the grunt work, supply the muscle and are appreciated by their coaches and teammates much more than they are by the insufferable peanut gallery that are the self-appointed internet "experts" who think stats are the be-all and end-all.

Since I mentioned Philadelphia in the previous section, I'll use a Philadelphia example here: Nicolas Deslauriers was once an offensive-minded defenseman at lower levels who became a tough forward as a pro. Why? Because the latter was his ticket to the NHL. He's carved out a 500-game and counting NHL career by working harder and wanting it more. The old-time enforcer role is all but dead nowadays. You can't only fight and have a role. Deslauriers is a player who has never had even a 100-PIM season at any level yet he's someone that few opponents who want to tangle with. I don't just mean when the gloves are dropped, either. I mean when the puck is in the corner. I mean when an opponent is on a power play and there's a guy who will pay any price to keep the puck from getting through.

These players STILL have a place in our game. If you see no value to what they do because their so-called "advanced stats" aren't to your liking, too bad. And that's all I have to say about that.

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A 2018 inductee into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, 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. Visit Paul's official websites, YaWannaGo.com and Officiating by Stewart.
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