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Now that the lighthearted fun of the NHL All-Star Game is over -- nicely done, by the way, and my heartfelt congratulations go out to John Scott -- decision time looms for the NHL in deciding punishment for Calgary Flames defenseman Dennis Wideman for his cross-check on linesman Don Henderson.
The hearing will take place on Tuesday in the NHL offices in Toronto (perhaps the inspiration for a movie called "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Canada"). It's certainly not Belgium!
Originally, I had not planned to write about the situation again after speaking my mind in Thursday's blog but new information has come to light that deserves focus. I also want to expand upon a few points for the sake of clarity.
First of all, to clarify something I wrote on Thursday, since no physical- abuse-of-an-official penalty was assessed on the play, this incident does not fall under the jurisdiction of Rule 40.3 (which would carry an automatic 10-game suspension). It also does not fall to the Department of Player Safety, which I noted but did not explain. Put simply, because it was not a player-to-player incident, it is not a matter of player safety.
Instead, it will be reviewed under Rule 28 (Supplementary Discipline) which provides the NHL the authority to “investigate any incident that occurs with any Pre-season, Exhibition, League or Playoff game and may assess fines and/or suspensions for any offense committed during the course of a game or any aftermath thereof by a player…”.
Note: While the League can and might use Rule 40 suspension regulations as a guideline for its ruling, it is under no obligation to do so. The NHL can impose any suspension length -- or no suspension -- as it so chooses based upon the evidence.
It has come to my attention after further review, exactly what happened on the ice on the sequence in question -- which is borne out by video evidence -- and why no physical abuse penalty was called.
Don Henderson himself did not know at first what happened. He was backing up and had no idea who or what was coming at him and who had hit him. The other three officials were focused on the developing play, thus no one saw what happened as it took place. Having not seen it, they couldn't call it.
I can already hear the arm-chair refs and trolls snickering, "Typical... the officials can't even see that." Well, here's the reality. Referees don’t usually follow or watch one player going toward the bench on a line change. That is why it's usually the linesmen who spot and call too many men on the ice infractions. In the meantime, there would be no reason for the partner linesman to be watching what was going on that far behind the play on the other end of the rink where where play was moving.
If you watch the video of the play, however, you see the shocked, even horrified expressions of the players on the bench who saw the cross-check. You also see Predators' coach Peter Laviolette hollering at the officials. He was not hollering for an abuse-of-official call. Lavy didn't see it, either. He was arguing for a too-many-men penalty on Calgary.
In my previous blog, I noted that there is a history of on-ice officials not calling Rule 40 and it's often associated, directly or indirectly, with job fear. I am glad to report that all evidence points toward this NOT being the case in this instance. It was a matter of not being able to call something that had not been seen by anyone in stripes.
As for the upcoming hearing, there is also a bit of full-circle ironic precedence in this case.
Back in 1994, you may recall, St. Louis Blues defenseman Rick Zombo slashed and then bumped longtime NHL linesman Kevin Collins in a game against the Dallas Stars.
On the play, Collins accidentally knoched the puck away from Zombo, where it went to opposing Mike McPhee, who took full advantage to score what proved to be the winning goal in a 2-1 victory for the Stars.
Zombo immediately slashed Collins after the collision and then bumped Kevin after the goal. Afterwards, the players said he wasn't aware he'd slashed the linesman and the Blues vehemently contended the bump was accidental, and hardly very forceful at all. Blues chairman Mike Shanahan famously retorted that he'd seen much worse contact in concession lines.
Rule 40 was not called. The case went to the NHL for review, where it went to the desk of.... (drumroll).... league vice president Brian Burke, who was in charge of supplementary discipline matters at the time. The Blues asked for leniency, talking about Zombo's character (to which I can attest, as he was usually a good guy and respectful to officials) and the extenuating circumstances that caused his reaction.
Burkie wasn't having any of it. Although he was under no obligation to do so, he did the right thing by following the rule book and implementing a 10-game suspension (which cost Zombo over $56K in lost wages on top of the obligatory $500 fine he received).
The irony here is that Brian Burke is now the president of the Calgary Flames. He will no doubt defend his player by pointing out that no penalty was called on the play. They will be talking about such an incident being severely out of character for Wideman (usually an honorable foot soldier of a player who minds his own business, the same can be said for linesman Henderson). The fact that the linesman was OK afterwards and the extenuating circumstances of the situation, in this case, it will be that Wideman was undeniably woozy from the check he'd taken moments earlier, will be offered as a softening agent.
Here again, I can speak with the dual experience of having played in the NHL as well as having officiated. It is possible to hit someone without even knowing it at the time. It happened to me in the heat and hyper-focus of battle and, as with the incident with referee Al Goodman that I described in Thursday's blog, it happened to me once in a semi-conscious and delirious state.
Guess what? It doesn't matter. Didn't matter then and doesn't matter now. I was not above the rules any more than Zombo or Tom Lysiak or Wideman. A player is still responsible for his own actions, and using any degree of physical force on an official, regardless of "extenuating circumstances", is unacceptable. It has to be a zero tolerance policy.
I still believe there was some deliberate -- not with intent to injure, but that is not necessary for a suspension -- action on Wideman's part in the way he raised his arms and extended his stick. As others have pointed out, if he had enough presence of mind to get up after the hit, head toward the bench and get his stick up, he also had the wherewithal to cushion a potential collision as he saw one was inevitable.
There are other historical precedents here for the League to follow. In 1998, Gary Bettman imposed a five-game suspension on Mike Peca, then with Buffalo, for grabbing referee Greg Kimmerly's arm ostensibly to get the official's attention to discuss a call.
What was interesting in this case is that the recommendation -- including by the officials who worked the game -- was a three-game suspension as laid out under Rule 40.4 (which covers "physically demeaning" behavior such as an arm grab) after initially classifying it in the 10-game category. Commissioner Bettman instituted a five-game ban, which was a fair verdict.
More recently, there was the Dan Carcillo abuse of linesman Scott Driscoll, for which an automatic 10-game suspension under Rule 40.3 but which the NHL, upon review, re categorized as a somewhat less serious offense -- contact made with no intent to injure in an attempt to break away from an official to go back into an ongoing fracas with the other team -- and instituted a six-game suspension. I didn't have a problem with that.
What Wideman did was worse than what Carcillo did, and it's not about playing styles, personality, past history or anything of the sort. It's not about Dennis Wideman and Don Henderson, who have both been in the league a long time and have no animosity for each other.
Instead, it's about doing the right thing. I hope the NHL does the right thing again, as Burke did in the Zombo case 22 years ago and come down with a 10-game suspension with Rule 40.3 as their guideline. I also hope the NHLPA and the Flames accept such a verdict and everyone moves on thereafter, but I am none too certain about that. We will wait til after Tuesday and the next movie. Perhaps a showing of Saving Private Ryan (and Privates Henderson + Wideman) would be fitting. Pass the popcorn, please.
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Thank you to TSN Radio in Winnipeg for having me on the show last week to discuss the Wideman situation.
You can listen to the interview
here.
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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 at both the Division 1 and Division 3 levels.
The longtime referee heads Officiating by Stewart, a consulting, training and evaluation service for officials. Stewart also maintains a busy schedule as a public speaker, fund raiser and master-of-ceremonies for a host of private, corporate and public events. As a non-hockey venture, he is the owner of Lest We Forget.
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • 
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