Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulstewart22
This has been a tough week. Yesterday, Bryan Murray publicly revealed that his colon cancer is in stage four and has spread to his liver and lungs. Bryan is a fighter to the end. My thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Murray family.
Shortly before Bryan began chemotherapy this summer, I wrote a HockeyBuzz blog in his honor as someone who knows this fight all too well. Away from the ice, Bryan was always a soft-spoken gentleman and I like him on a personal level apart from respecting him as a hockey man.
Being a fundamentally caring person, Bryan has put out a vitally message to the public about the importance of colonoscopy screenings. As a survivor of stage three colon cancer who has devoted the remainder of my life to cancer education and providing support to cancer patients, I wholeheartedly echo Bryan's potentially life-saving plea.
On a less somber note, I made an appearance on ESPN's latest 30-for-30 Shorts installment, which looked at former Bruins tough guy John Wensink. As someone who performed the enforcer job myself in my playing days, I know full well that there was always a little bit of fear that motivated us in that role. We knew why we were there, and we didn't want to let anyone down.
I fought John in the American Hockey League in 1976 when he was with Rochester and I was playing for New Haven. We had one hell of a scrap.
People sometimes ask me if I "hated" the other enforcers around the leagues I played in. The answer is no. Tough guys like Wensick meant job security for me.
There weren't a lot of people who wanted to mess with guys like Wensick, Terry O'Reilly, Jack McIlhargey, Glen Cochrane, my former roommate Nick Fotiu, Kim Clackson, Garry Howatt, Dave Hanson or Chris "Knuckles" Nilan. Well, I fought 'em all, with the exception up Nilan. You don't fight neighbors with whom you grew up.
At any rate, Mark O' Sullivan got me into the mini-documentary on Wensick. It was filmed at the Eire Pub in Dorchester where my picture and referee sweater used to hang. Not too many guys from Dot made the NHL.
The Eire Pub actually took down my sweater due to political pressure from the Boston Police Union. There were some cops that didn't like that I went to Mayor Menino's State of the City speech the same year the police were in a contract dispute with the city. I'll tell that story another time. I will say that it kind of bothered me.
Oh, well. The Eire still has good food, drinks and a nice atmosphere. The bartenders are good guys, too. Maybe John Stenson might change his mind and put my sweater back up, If not, so be it. Til then, I'll stop by Costello's in JP. Love the Griffins. Molly's chowder is to die for.
Have a good weekend, everyone. Be back on Monday.
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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.