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In last night's game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers, there was a notable play in the first period in which Pittsburgh forward Bryan Rust had possession of the puck behind the Philadelphia net. Rust was stapled to the boards by Philadelphia defenseman Robert Hagg. Rust hit his head on the dasher, and went down in a daze to the ice. He left the ice to undergo concussion testing and did not return to the game. A boarding minor was assessed to Hagg by the R2 (trailing referee).



Over the course of a few seconds, this sequence represented many things that irk me about today's game. I speak from my dual perspective as a longtime NHL ref and former pro player. Let's deconstruct what happened, and why it bothers me.

This is a routine hockey play up until the hit's aftermath. Rust had his head up as he went behind the net and saw that the defender was locked in him. He knew a hit was coming. Hagg delivered what looked to me to be a textbook clean body check, delivered from the side with intent to take his man out of the play and off the puck. Unfortunately, the sequence ended up having multiple bad outcomes.

While the onus is on the hitter to deliver a legal check (don't hit from behind, don't target the head, don't charge, jump into the hit, etc.) there is also a matter of self-protection. Rust knew a hit was coming and instead of properly bracing for it up against the boards, he got into a dangerous posture that, unfortunately, resulted in him being injured.

Even at the NHL level, many of today's players simply don't know what to do when there's a hit coming along the walls. They put themselves into a vulnerable position that easily could lead to getting injured even on a clean check. What Rust did on that sequence was reflective of a bad habit that many players have and are never adequately coached to eliminate. I see plays like these all the time, with more and more frequency each year, and it worries me greatly.

Secondly, let's break down the mechanism of this call. In my last blog, I talked about process and outcome, and the vital importance of positioning.

Here, we had a play that took place right in front of the R1, who was in the best position to see the play. He deemed it a clean hit (in other words, he didn't raise his arm for a penalty). The R2, from 100 feet away and with a much less ideal view of the play, took it upon himself to make the call. There was no communication to determine if the partner ref closest to the play saw the sequence clearly, instead there was a rush to raise the arm because the boards rattled loudly and the check recipient went down.

This is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about the other day in regard to process. Even if the right call is made, it was a lucky correct call and not a process that is conducive to getting far more calls right than incorrect. What made this particular one stand out as especially poor is that the wrong call was made. There was no boarding here, and it underlined exactly why the R2 shouldn't have been the one with the call because he didn't have the right view from down the ice. He needed to trust his partner's judgment or, if he DID see something, confer about it with him. Instead, he "filled in the blanks" (in other words, he guessed) what had happened, and he guessed wrong.

Lastly, I do not believe in refereeing based on the result of a play. Not every play where an injury occurs is a penalty. Likewise, not every hit where someone gets back up and is OK is necessarily a clean hit. Judge the merits of the play itself.

All the way around here, there was bad process from BOTH player and official standpoints and also bad outcomes from both. We need to do better.

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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.

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