Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulstewart22
The 2015 Stanley Cup Final start next Wednesday. Best of luck to the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning in their Eastern Conference Final seventh and deciding game tonight and to the Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks in Game Seven of the Western Conference Final tomorrow night.
Of course, I will be pulling for the officials in both games as well as the upcoming championship round to have strong perfomances as well. May the flow be with you.
I have always been of the opinion that the Stanley Cup Finals are the easiest of all NHL playoff rounds to officiate. That is for one simple reason: With so much at stake, players seldom risk doing the sorts of dumb things that lead to needless penalties and/or potential supplementary discipline from the League.
Yes, I know it still happens on occasion. As a rule of thumb, however, the players simply play hockey and cut out the extracurricular nonsense after the whistles and behind the play. The majority of the controversies that arise during the Finals center around whether certain would-be goals should have been allowed or disallowed. This is something that happens all season, of course, but it gets greatly magnified in the playoffs.
The rest of it is usually a bunch of between-game gamesmanship. That sort of stuff keeps the media busy to fill column space and television or radio airtime but has little to no effect on the actual games.
Due to internal politics and personal agendas, I never worked a Stanley Cup Final in my 17 years of NHL officiating. However, I worked games in the finals of every other league in which I officiated, including the Canada Cup (I refereed the classic 1987 Final series between Canada and the USSR and it was the best hockey I've ever seen) and the Calder Cup Finals.
As far as this year's playoff officiating assignments have gone, this what I will say. Individually, I am happy for the officials who get the chance to work deep into the postseason and get the honor of working the Finals. I respect them all and wish them well. I helped break in many of these guys when they were getting started. A few remain good friends.
Enjoy the games, everyone. This is the time of year that everyone in hockey craves to be part of on the ice.
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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 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.