Month: September 2023

How and why do they become referees?

Becoming an NHL referee is a process that involves classroom instruction, seminars, ice time, league certification and experience, membership fees, and having to complete an open book rules exam, much more in-depth than any other professional sport.

So why do people want to become a referee/linesman and voluntarily subject themselves to abuse from every team’s head coach, fans, and the media?

The answer is simple…Hockey, we all love and appreciate the game, sport, and culture of Hockey and it is this passion that drives some of us to teams and leagues to play or officiate with the more passionate ones endeavoring to become professionals.

I used to purchase The Hockey News from a newsstand here in my city back in the late 1980s and I recently submitted my email to be informed when THN will digitize all their back issues to 1947.

During the late 1980s, THN ran an ongoing series observing and keeping their own statistics on the NHL referees, the NHL does not make referee statistics publicly available.

So in that spirit, I will run a similar series on NHL referees for the 2023-24 NHL regular season, and select some but not all referees, and follow them during the season in what could be referred to as an “NHL fantasy referee league”.

My intent is not to mock or drag down an official’s reputation or poke holes in how the NHL officiates their games but to observe and analyze statistically to report on what referees seem to be the most fair and consistent when dishing out punishment.

In the series of THN articles from the late 1980s they declared Kerry Fraser the most fair and consistent official, it is my hope to highlight more referees with similar traits.

Each day I will play the Hockey Reference website’s Hockey Immaculate Grid game and post answers the next day.

Now you can just look the answers up, but what fun is that? What I am endeavoring to do is play from memory as well as shoot for the lowest percentage answer.

There are grids I can barely fill out because I do not know that much about every NHL team and their players but this is a great way to build my/your overall NHL knowledge.

Today’s grid game:

Good Luck!

Traded or free agency

Such was the case in 1976 when I was a teenager and Bobby Orr a Boston icon, legend, hero, you name it, left his legion of fans and the only NHL team he has ever known behind for cash, or so we were led to believe.

I understand professional Hockey is a business, profit, bottom line, a conglomeration of owners and corporations making money, even from the very beginning when it was decided three periods were better than two because there would be two intermissions for the team/owner vendors.

It always hurts when a player you admire leaves a team you cheer for especially if it was orchestrated merely for financial reasons and worse yet when it is done out of cronyism.

During the 1982 NHL Entry Draft Buffalo selected in the first round 6, 9, and 16^th , teams like the Whalers, Nordiques, and the North Stars passed on the one player everyone should have selected and that was Dave Andreychuk, after passing on him twice Buffalo eventually acquired Mr. Andreychuk.  

The Oshawa Generals offensive standout will have his sweater retired to the rafters of the Tribute Communities Centre on October 6^th becoming the seventh player to have earned this honor joining among the six others, Bobby Orr and Eric Lindros.

The Hamilton, Ontario native scored 37 points in his first 43 NHL games for the Buffalo Sabres, and in his last year playing 52 games in 1992-93 for Buffalo Mr. Andreychuk scored 29 goals in a 61-point output {54 goals, 99 points total 83 games}.

In 23 NHL seasons, Mr. Andreychuk scored 12 Hat Tricks 10 of them with Buffalo his team for 12 years including the 2000-01 campaign, he played in two All-Star Games in 1990 & 1994, won a Stanley Cup in 2004, and was elected into the Hall of Fame in 2017.

The 6’ 4” left winger could always be counted on for 30-40 goals in a full season which he accomplished seven times with Buffalo, twice scoring over 50 goals and putting up 91, 99, and 99 points consecutively with Toronto. As a young bartender, I watched the Sabres beat the Bruins with Mr. Andreychuk scoring five times and earning a primary assist in an 8-6 drubbing in Boston by Buffalo.

When Buffalo’s General Manager and Head Coach in 1992-93 traded away Mr. Andreychuk with one of our goaltenders for a goaltender who just happened to be the GM/HC’s goalie from their glory days I was dismayed, to say the least.

I still admire Mr. Andreychuk and his accomplishments for all the teams he played with and was truly happy watching him hoist the Cup, one of the most respected players of his time, a Hockey player everyone could cheer for.

Boston Bruins {1^st overall while compiling the greatest NHL regular-season record} Eastern Conference, Atlantic Division

An incredible 2022-23 NHL season scoring over 300 goals, losing only four times at home with three S/O points earned, one player scoring over 60 goals, topped off by an unheard-of +128 goal differential, taking a three-game series lead before bowing out early to the eventual Cup Finalists.

The first NHL franchise in the United States of America was awarded to the city of Boston for the 1924-25 NHL season, entering their 100^th year of play in the NHL the Bruins are unveiling new home, away, and alternate sweaters on the 17^th of this month to celebrate.

Second-year head coach Jim Montgomery has the honor of selecting Boston’s 21^st Captain as Mr. Bergeron retires, and the pressure of reproducing last season’s phenomenal regular season as well as furthering his team in the upcoming playoffs.