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Officiating and the Sheet Cake Effect |
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Follow Paul on Twtter: @paulstewart22
When I refereed, I mentally viewed every new game like a freshly baked-and-iced sheet cake. In other words, it was a fresh start with endless possibilities. No matter what happened the previous night or the last time I officiated a game involving these same clubs, players and coaches, I couldn't assume this one would be just like the last.
I needed to take things as they happened and deal with it, using feel for the game and the patience not to mentally "fill in the blanks" and assume that because Player X was on the ice, such-and-such was bound to happen. I found that talking to the guys, working with the coaches and skating hard usually got the respect that I needed to do the job.
For every official, as I've said and written scores of times over the years, striving for mutual acceptability is an important goal to attain. Some folks willfully chose to misinterpret or skew the meaning of the term "acceptability" between players and officials. This does NOT mean looking the other way because an official personally likes Player A while "inventing" calls on Player B because they've clashed in the past.
cceptability means that a player or official can mess up and the slate is wiped clean because there is an underpinning of respect that has been earned over time. How many times have you heard people say, "When will officials have some accountability when they mess up?"
In reality, officials have as much accountability as players do. Everyone has a boss.
Accountability is best exemplified by U.S. President Harry Truman's famous declaration that "the buck stops here." The saying is a twist on the slang expression "passing the buck"; in other words, shirking responsibility and passing it on to someone else, especially if there's a screw-up and someone is to be blamed for the mistake.
As a referee, I always believed that the buck stopped with me to exercise proper judgment about whether to make a call or to let something slide. There are three components to making a call: 1) the action of a player; 2) the rulebook definition of that action's legality; 3) the effect of that player's action on an opposing player and/or the flow of the game.
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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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