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Water, Water Everywhere

May 13, 2014, 2:42 PM ET [20 Comments]
Paul Stewart
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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I have seen my share of pranks on the ice and the dressing room over the years. I may even have participated in some of them during my career. One thing I never did -- and which was not part of the game when I played and officiated it -- was douse an opposing player with the contents of a water bottle.

Apparently, that particular form of disrespecting an opponent has become part of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Already this year, we've seen Corey Perry douse Jeff Carter's glove, Shawn Thornton squirt water at P.K. Subban as the Montreal player skated past the Boston bench, and Henrik Lundqvist empty his water bottle on Sidney Crosby.

Frankly, it's bush league garbage. Players at the game's top level should be better than that.

Of the three incidents, the worst was the one with Thornton because play was going on at the time. Listen, I played the same role that Thornton did and spent many a game stapled to the end of the bench. If don't like what some guys do and if I was playing or reffing, they would know it. I also did not make idle threats.

Squirting a player with water as he skated past me? I never would have done that, nor would my contemporaries. We had too much respect for the game.

This is has been a bad year for Thornton. If you are a tough guy, be one with class. He's had two strikes against him in jeopardizing his status as an honorable tough guy who understands and upholds the code. Whether you like Subban or hate him, it does not reflect well on the resourcefulness of Thornton or the Bruins that all they've been able to come up with to deal with the way he's played this series is for a forward on the end of the bench to squirt water at him.

As for the Lundqvist incident, there is a little bit of full-circle irony in it. Countryman Pelle Lindbergh -- the only other Swede to win the Vezina Trophy -- was the first NHL goalie to regularly carry out a water bottle to keep on top of his net. He did it because he frequently suffered from dehydration problems and was hospitalized a couple times early in his career. During the 1985 Stanley Cup Finals, Edmonton Oilers coach Glen Sather made an issue of Lindbergh's water bottle, basically as a sort of gamesmanship.

So here we are 29 years later. Sather is the president and GM of the New York Rangers team that employs Lundqvist. Every goaltender in the NHL has a water bottle on his net. It just so happens that the best Swedish goaltender to come along since Lindbergh's death used his water bottle on the ice for a purpose other than what it's intended.

OK, history lesson is over. Anyway, something else that has changed over the years is players' attitudes toward fines. During my playing career and the early part of my officiating career, the threat of fines was a real deterrent to people in the game. Most of us weren't making much money and even those who were making a pretty good living parted with their money very reluctantly.

Nowadays, players just laugh at fines because the maximum fines are so artificially low and outdated. How much do you think Thornton was bothered by his $2,820.52 fine or Lundqvist for his $5,000 fine?

As I said yesterday, it's all "fine and dandy" by these guys. That's a shame.

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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 is an officiating and league discipline consultant for the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and serves as director of hockey officiating for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).

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.

In addition to his blogs for HockeyBuzz every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, Stewart writes a column every Wednesday for the Huffington Post.
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