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I will leave it to fans to debate the selections of the NHL 100 in conjunction with the league's centennial. Part of the fun, after all, is to feel indignation over why this guy made it and that guy did not. No two people's lists will quite the same. Congratulations go out to the honorees.
Now here's my own two cents: I don't object to the honorees, including the strategic cross-section of eras, or the fact that only players' NHL careers were considered (which is why all-time greats such as Russian players Igor Larionov and Slava Fetisov were left off along with some great WHA-NHL players like Mark Howe). You can slice and dice the criteria however you want, and you'll still come up with 100 excellent hockey players in the end.
My question is about the selection committee; not who was on it, but who was NOT on it. The committee contained owners, GMs, team presidents, coaches, media members, Hockey Canada, and USA Hockey representations. The IIHF had input. There were three women on the committee.
I have no problem with any of these inclusions. But.... not a single on-ice official, past or present, was given any voice at the table in the selection committee. We were excluded en masse. Am I surprised? Sadly, no. But I am disappointed and a bit peeved.
This is not sour grapes or ego. I never thought for a second that the persona non grata such as myself had a snowball's chance at being part of the NHL 100 selection committee. To have no on-ice officials at all, though? Not even the ones whom the league still employees or recently retired? Not a supervisor?
On-ice officials have a unique perspective of players because we're actually on the ice with these guys, year after year as they develop from rookies to seasoned pros. We see their skill and their hockey sense firsthand. We are in the trenches and we know who has guts and who throws snow. We know the greats from the near-greats and the legends in their own minds. We can tell tough guys from bluff guys.
Additionally, on-ice officials are actually the LEAST likely people to bring any sort of agenda to the table. It doesn't matter to us if he's a great guy or a grate guy. Someone needn't be an All-Star person to be an All-Star skater, passer and shooter (or defender or goaltender, etc).
Mind you, I'm not suggesting that anyone who was included in the selection committee should have been excluded. The more diverse and unique the array of outlooks, the better. I just think that it was a disservice to cut on-ice officials entirely out of the selection process because there was definite value to add and perspectives to offer that may escape other selectors.
I have learned over the years, however, that ignorance of this fact is typical of the way the League and the management puts Officiating to the side for any aspect of the game. Officials are always an afterthought.
When they build rinks, they always forget to add an officials room that is big enough or safely placed to help avoid confrontations. We haven't come too far from the "have another doughnut" days.
The one at Boston's TD Garden was originally a very small handicapped bathroom, usually a spare room that no one else is using with a nail on the wall is sufficient. At the All Star games, grudgingly do they give the officials their "gift" bags with all of the All Star Memorabilia, shorts, hats and track suits. Well, at least usually.
I'm still waiting for mine from the '98 Vancouver game. They were stolen right out of the Headquarters Hotel before we got them, or so we were told.
Why are we such a thorn in their sides? It's because we dare to bring these things up,that we actually have a brain, an opinion and a stake in the game is beyond the management's scope of comprehension.
Yet we are also the tough ones that have to decide fair and foul, right and wrong, fair or foul, Da or Nyet.m Oui ou Non. Listen, I've been around this game -- first the players' locker room and then the officials room -- for so long that I know that simply getting clean towels and a bar of soap was a victory unto itself for the guys in stripes. I know it because I lived it.
When you were a player and then a referee you see and note the difference in appreciation and respect.. That we weren't asked to participate is no great surprise. After all, we are "just the refs" so who cares what we think. We don't know anything, anyway.
Perhaps officials should just be replaced with some random people sitting in the press box or along the glass or in an office someplace with a TV and a remote control. A dime a dozen, our lot.
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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, he is the director of officiating for the ECAC.