Everyone asks what I think of this year's officiating in the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs. What am I supposed to think?
The officiating business has to be treated like any discipline in any job or company. The only way to ensure the quality of Officiating in Hockey or in business or any sport is to constantly refresh with new ideas and introduce concepts that keep up with the changing styles and habits in the game or business.
When I was growing up, if someone said he or she was too full to eat dessert, the reply was "Come on, there's always room for Jello." As, far as the officiating in these Stanley Cup playoffs and the state of NHL officiating in general, there's plenty of room for Jello and maybe a slice of humble pie, too.
There's always room for refreshing tried and true officiating guidelines starting with conditioning, positioning, guidelines for application of rules and accepted traditions in the game. It calls for good coaching of officials. Does that happen? I think there's room for better and stronger efforts in this area, from the the NHL level right on down to the grass roots.
What would I like to see in the NHL, moving forward:
1) A rewrite of the Rule Book to make sections of it better worded, more intuitive and more reflective of how the game is actually played. The most dire need is in goalie interference rules and the delay of game penalty for clearly accidental puck flips over the glass from the defensive zone (there's a lot of bad ice, especially in the warm/hot weather of June hockey).
2) An emphasis on PROPERLY coaching officials on positioning, and accountability to those standards.
3) Restructure how officiating is managed in the NHL. Take it out from under the thumb of the Colin Campbell and the Hockey Ops department; ditto the Department of Player Safety. Rather than the Director of Officiating and the head of DOPS reporting to Hockey Ops, make each parallel on the food chain to Hockey Ops and have them report directly to Bill Daly. I also think a former referee should part of the equation in terms of managing replay.
There have been recent controversies about contact with the goalie around the net and too-many-men on the ice situations. I've discussed those topics in past blogs but I'll add a couple of anecdotes related to those topics.
I was reffing the St. Louis vs Toronto series in 1996. Grant Fuhr was in net for the Blues. Toronto's Nick Kypreos had a similar push onto Fuhr as the recent controversy and fell on the goalie (who also left the game). In both cases, I say GRAVITY helps when a guy gets pushed, cross checked or slammed from behind into the goalie. The guy was trying to score a goal by snagging the puck. It's not my favorite call, by the way.
In regards to the too-many-men penalty, John D'Amico went to his grave wishing that Boston had pulled the sixth man back onto the bench vs Montreal. John said that he yelled and yelled to get the Boston player back to the bench. Unfortunately, the sixth man got so far from the bench, he felt had ultimately had to blow the whistle and assess the penalty. The rest was history. Guy Lafleur beat Gilles Gilbert on a shot placed low and to the far side to tie the game. Montreal went on to win the series and the Stanley Cup.
To err is human. Officials very rarely have "perfect" games, just as even superstars rarely have a game without a single puck bobble, failed clear, errant shot, pass into the skates. Goalies periodically need help clearing away a rebound they could have snagged cleanly. As a player AND as a ref, you just hope it doesn't happen at least opportune of moments and that all's well that ends well.
Imperfection is part of our game, and always will be. That does not mean, however, that we cannot and should not strive for improvement. It doesn't mean we do not seek ways to do things better and more systematically. Remember: "There's always room for Jello."
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A 2018 inductee into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, 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.
Visit Paul's official websites, YaWannaGo.com and Officiating by Stewart. 
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • 
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