Category: Hockey History 1917-2023

The Sabres open their preseason schedule versus the Capitals at 2pm

and from yesterday

All I could manage to remember yesterday were goalies, I have so much more to learn about players from over 100 years of NHL Hockey.

Approximately last night at midnight, the Los Angeles Kings played the Arizona Coyotes in Australia’s first NHL game, in this preseason contest the Yotes defeated the Kings in Melbourne 5-3 in front of over 13,000 fans.

Today’s game/test and yesterday’s attempt

Yesterday only four out of nine, I need to study other teams a bit more closely.

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!