This has been a tough year for everyone in society. The National Hockey League and other hockey leagues have been no exception.
The Ontario Hockey League didn't play at all. Depending on the conference and the school, NCAA hockey was disjointed at best and some programs didn't play at all. Much of the ECHL opted out. There will be no Calder Cup playoffs in the American Hockey League. Due to COVID-19, the NHL simultaneously has playoff games and regular season makeup games going on simultaneous, with the latter existing at this point only to ensure every team played 56 games. The NHL Draft will be belated with a lot of guesswork involved (that's why I believe this is actually a good year to stock up on some picks, because there's bound to be surprises).
To be totally candid, I found the 2020-21 hockey season, replete with empty and near-empty arenas to be a rather sterile and sometimes joyless experience at times. My fondest hope is that normalcy truly returns for next offseason; for the players, for the officials, for team employees, the hockey media and, most of all, the fans.
This weekend, however, we've gotten a reminder of what makes playoff hockey so special and intense; each of the first three Stanley Cup playoff games played have gone to overtime. I find the regular season 3-on-3 overtime to be entertaining and frenetic, but there's nothing that compares to playoff overtime(s) where every inch of the ice has to fought over and, if the game isn't decided early in OT, you could easily end up riding the emotional roller coaster for hours to come.
Keep this in mind, though: While players have respites between shifts, officials spend the entire game skating. Hockey officials, especially nowadays, have to be outstanding athletes in their own right to do it professionally. I once could skate all night long and not get tired. Too bad we've all gotta get old. Watching some of these playoff OTs has stirred up the juices and reminded me of why the greatest material gift i ever received in my life was my first pair of skates.
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MIC DROP WITH MIKE ASTI
Thank you to Mike Asti (@MikeAsti11) for having me as his guest on the "Mic Drop with Mike Asti" show on Pittsburgh Sports Live. We discussed the fallout from Tom Wilson/Rangers, talked about the roles of toughness and fighting in hockey, and related matters. Watch below:
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ASH CAN REMEMBERED
Earlier this week marked 44 years since the untimely passing of former Philadelphia Flyers defenseman and assistant coach Barry Ashbee at the age of 38. "Ashcan" lost a battle with leukemia, leaving behind a wife and two children as well as many grief-stricken friends and colleagues around hockey.
Ashbee was a true tough guy on the ice the stoic kind, who never back down from anyone but never had to put on a show to prove his toughness. He spent much of his career playing through a very extensive array of painful injuries, including a pinched nerve in his neck that forced him to wear a protective collar. When my neck was injured while I played at the University of Pennsylvania, Barry gave me the collar he'd worn in 1973-74. He sustained a career-ending eye injury in the semifinal series against the New York Rangers.
Barry Ashbee was also incredibly generous with his time. Although I was just a college kid and he was a player-turned-coach for the defending Stanley Cup champions, he always set aside time to work with me one-on-one. He encouraged me to persevere by telling me stories about his prolonged journey to reach the NHL. Never once did he give in to self-pity that his playing days ended so abruptly due to the eye injury.
There was nothing I could have done for Barry to repay his kindness. All I could do was try to pay it forward to others and tell younger generations who have forgotten his name that he was someone who worked twice as hard as most players to reach the NHL and then to become a late-blooming All-Star. He hated excuses, never making any for himself and never accepting them from teammates. Off the ice, he was a just a regular guy who never forgot where he came from.
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • 
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