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Sometimes when I write these blogs, I am amazed at the seeming disconnect between the central idea I am trying to put across with the message that some readers take away from it. Case in point: The notion that a good referee is one whom you do notice -- for the right reasons -- not one who fades into the woodwork.
The more I think about it, though, the more I see the root cause of the disconnect. Most people do not know HOW to watch the officials, because they don't know what to look for over the course of a game. What may stand out to the trained eye probably goes unnoticed by most others -- whose notion of good officiating can basically be defined as "did he make a controversial call that went against my favorite team? If he did, he's a lousy official."
If you get nothing else from these blogs, I hope you learn to look for these things first from officials: positioning, conditioning and skating.
Additionally, when you need a tough call, you want someone reffing or lining who has the jam to make that call regardless of the consequence. That is why I am so stubborn about conditioning and skating....because without those two aspects in top form for officials.
Some folks think I defend the officials no matter what. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Ask anyone I supervise or assign if I shield guys who are out of shape, out position, fail to hustle or do not know the Rule Book. I believe in tough love for these guys, the same as my mentors such as Frank Udvari and John McCauley showed me.
If a goalie isn't getting the job done, what do we do? We pull him and put in the team's other goalie. I have no problem whatsoever with holding officials to the same standard. In fact, I'm wholeheartedly in favor of that idea. Putting people into games and then seeing that they can't do the job is a mistake if you don't make a change regardless of the consequences. You are compounding the problem, and two wrongs will not make it right. Players and officials alike could get hurt or miss something that would make the game more dangerous or unfair.
I believe that the good of the game comes first. I can live with some "blown" calls -- the same as I can live with a bad turnover or a soft goal by a player or a coach pushing the wrong strategic buttons -- because hockey is a human game and humans make mistakes. But show me an official who is out of shape or takes the lazy way out rather than hustling into proper position and no one gets angrier than I do.
Try watching the game from an official's eyes sometime and I guarantee that you will get a whole different sense of what constitutes good officiating.
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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.