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Longtime NHL linesman Jean Morin and referee Paul Devorski are retiring at the end of this season. Quebec native Morin worked his final game last night, officiating the lines as the Montreal Canadiens hosted the Washington Capitals. Devorski, a Canadian transplant who lives in central Pennsylvania, will work his final game on Sunday when the Philadelphia Flyers clash with the cross-state archrival Pittsburgh Penguins.
My sincere congratulations go out to both men for their long and successful careers as active officials. It is always a little melancholy to see my brothers as they bid adieu to the ice on which we all thrived. I think that their careers will be a great springboard to another satisfying life for both of them.
Jean has been working in the NHL since 1991. Heading into his farewell game, Morin had worked 1,357 regular season games and 211 playoff games, including eight games in the Stanley Cup Finals. Additionally, he worked the lines in the 2003 NHL All-Star Game in Florida, the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City and the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver (including the Canada-USA gold medal game).
"Devo" became an NHL referee two seasons after I was moved up to the NHL. His promotion was one of the first that Bryan Lewis made after my mentor John McCauley passed away and Lewis became the NHL's director of officiating. Devorski worked his first NHL game on Oct. 14, 1989, and has been a fixture in the league ever since. He worked the 2008 and 2009 Stanley Cup Finals as well as the 2006 Olympics (including the Sweden-Finland gold medal game).
My earliest impression of Jean Morin was that he was huge and strong but a bit lumbering. I soon realized that he was also a damn good linesman with a tremendous work ethic. He just got better and better with every passing year. I have often said that good linesmen make referees' jobs a lot easier and make us look good. Jean developed into the type of linesman with whom every referee wants to work.
There was a high trust factor with Morin and he was a good teammate on top of it. He cared about getting the right call above all else and, when he said something to his teammates, you listened because he wasn't one to speak up just to hear his own voice.
My dearest memory of Jean is that he worked with me in the game in New Jersey when I made my return to the ice from my bout with colon cancer. That was a very emotional night for me, and I could not have asked for a better partner to help me get through the game.
Now that he is retiring as an active official, I think the NHL could right a wrong (they have exactly zero francophones among their current officiating supervisors) by hiring Morin to fulfill that role if that's where his interests are at this stage of his life.
As with myself, Paul Devorski comes from a family where officiating is a way of life. His father was an official and his younger brother, long-time NHL linesman Greg, is someone I've always liked and is a quality person. Greg has dealt with a lot of back pain and surgeries but persevered.
My fondest memory of Devo is that I was the standbye referee when he officiated his first Stanley Cup playoff match; a game in Washington. Devorski was like a little kid that night; he was so excited by the honor of stepping on the ice for a playoff game.
My most memorable experience with Devo came early after the NHL adopted the two-referee system and we were all still feeling our way through the adjustment.
Contrary to popular belief, the two-referee system is not some newfangled invention in hockey. As a matter of fact, my grandfather worked in a two-referee system in the NHL in the 1930s. They had two referees and one linesman back in that era. My father also worked with a partner referee in his early officiating days. However, by the time I trained to be an official, the one referee, two linesmen system had long been the standard.
When the current two-referee and two linesmen system was introduced in the modern era, NHL management had a theory about how it "should" work based upon the location of the puck. The rink is divided into thirds, with the neutral zone being "common ground" patrolled by both referees and the "action referee" (the R1) handling plays in their end of the ice.
However, nothing has EVER been codified in the NHL (or by the IIHF or by European pro leagues) about the assignments for each referee. The system that was never thought out and illustrated to us in an intelligent way. We officials were left on our own to figure it out. The communications aren't always seamless.
Guess what? What I quickly discovered is that there are times where it makes sense for the R2 to make a call and times where it doesn't. It is situation-based. Unless the NHL says the R2 must stop being an official one-third of the time and become a spectator when the puck crosses the far-side blueline, there are going to be times where the R2 steps up to make a call. Hopefully the right decision gets made.
At the time it was introduced, Paul and I had differing philosophies on how the two-man system should operate. He's a man of strong beliefs about his profession and so am I.
That season, we worked two games together that were closely spaced on the schedule: The first was in Pittsburgh (Penguins vs. Devils), the latter was in Philadelphia.
In the first game, Lyle Odelein and Matthew Barnaby ran their mouths at each other the entire game but nothing further developed. That is, not until late in the game.
Devo was the R1 in that situation but he had to duck in self-protection as a puck got deflected near his head. Spotting an opportunity, Barnaby cross-checked Odelein. I saw it and made the call.
Afterwards, my partner referee and I argued about the penalty.
Devorski was so angry that refused to shake my hand after the game. We exchanged some choice words. He was livid at me for making a call on "his" side and I stressed that the correct call was made and I made the call because he hadn't been able to see it.
When he finally calmed down a bit, Devo expressed to me why he thought I was wrong.
"I'm not saying that it wasn't a penalty, Stew," he said. "I'm saying that it goes against our philosophy."
"I thought our philosophy was working together to get the right call," I said. "You had to protect yourself there and didn't see what happened. I saw it."
We never came to an agreement, so just had to agree to disagree and move onward. As luck would have it, Devorski and I worked a game very shortly thereafter in Philadelphia.
This time, I was the R1 on the play in question. I got whacked in the head with a puck, getting knocked to one knee. As I was down, Devorski spotted a high stick that I didn't see.
Devo made the call, and then grinned at me. After the game, I gladly shook his hand.
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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 the chairman of the officiating and discipline committee 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, while also maintaining 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.
Stewart is currently working with a co-author on an autobiography.