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As much as we try to make hockey rules black and white, there are shades of gray with many of them, which is why officiating involves judgment. However, some rules truly are black and white. In either case, it is unacceptable for an official not to know a rule.
The other day, I was watching a junior game. During a delayed penalty, the team that would receive a power play upon touch-up by the offending team tried to make a stretch pass. The pass missed connections and became an icing. Play was blown dead, and the penalized player was escorted to the penalty box.
So far, nothing out of the ordinary. For some reason, however, the officiating team was confused about where the next faceoff should be. Power plays, of course, typically start with a faceoff in the offensive zone. However, icings typically bring about a faceoff in the defensive zone of the team that iced the puck. The delay lasted a little too long, both coaches were spoken to and the ensuing faceoff took place..... at center ice.
What is wrong with that? The rule book is black-and-white about this situation: the faceoff should take place at the dot located just outside the defensive blueline of the team on the power play. It's not all that rare of a situation or obscure of a rule, so I'm not sure why it caused so much confusion.
Basically what happened in this situation was that the officials did not want to get either bench angry at them, so they split the difference down the middle and put the faceoff at center ice to keep both coaches off their backs. That's not how it works in hockey, though. The refs aren't there to function as a latter-day King Solomon, declaring that the baby should be split down the middle in order to see which woman claiming the baby to be her own would relent.
Again, there is a specific rule book instruction to go by here. The rule book is the official's shield. If a coach gets angry or disputes it, well, that's too bad. He can read the rule for himself. In the officiating realm, one learns quickly that many coaches -- not all, but many -- really don't know the rule book all that well. That does not excuse the official, though, or give license to coming up with a "compromise" that is counter to a very specific instruction.
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A Class of 2018 inductee to 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. Today, Stewart is the director of hockey officiating for the ECAC. Visit his official website at YaWannaGo.com.
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • 
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