I recently received an email signed off “Yours in Officiating.”  I stopped to think about whether I’d ever used that same turn of phrase when writing to a fellow official.  I cannot remember having done it, but I cannot clearly say I never have.  From now on, I will never sign anything “Yours in Officiating.”  This simple phrase is an example of exactly why there is such distance between officials and the rest of the hockey world.  Players and coaches, as groups, do not oppose one another.  Many have a healthy dislike for politics, but they still understand the need for administration and appreciate, at a minimum, the fact that these people volunteer so much of their time so that hockey associations can continue to exist.  Officials do the same thing as these administrative volunteers, but that same appreciation is all too frequently absent.  As officials we like to blame the players and coaches.  We do it all the time.  Sometimes they really are just unreasonable human beings, but that is not the norm in the human population.  If it were, reasonable would simply have a different definition to fit the majority.  Administrators, players and coaches sign “Yours in Hockey.”  Officials sign “Yours in Officiating.”  The biggest problem is that the officiating world separates itself from the rest of hockey.

We use the catch phrases all the time.  “We must be held to a higher standard.”  “We’re the only ones out there not trying to win at all costs.”  “We are the ones responsible for the safety of the players.”  “It is up to us to ensure that the results are fair.”  Each and every one of those statements means the same thing: We are better than them.  We are different and we are ever so important and they could not play hockey without us.  With that kind of arrogance, is it any wonder that we are disliked?  The time has come to turn the tables.  It is time to integrate officials back into the culture of hockey and break down the barriers that have been set between players and refs.

Officials must remember always that hockey comes first and officiating second.  Hockey is what we love, and officiating is what gives us the chance to stay in the game.  Without the game in the first place, officiating would not be there to keep us in it.  We are not separate at all.  We are an integral part of the game at ice level, but we are only there because the players need us to be there.  We need them even more.  They give us the opportunity to skate.  A little less than a year ago, I began to incorporate something new into my refereeing.  I have always been a vocal referee, communicating with players constantly during the play but near the end of last season I began to add some new comments to my referee’s vocabulary.  I started to tell players things like “nice check, Blue,” “good defence red,” “good clearance,” and “beauty of a pass.”  I had done this from time to time before, but I really began to make it part of my game during a Midget tournament.  Something amazing happened: the games got better.  Not only did I deal with less whining and complaining and call fewer penalties, the games themselves actually became faster, more competitive and just, plain better hockey.  When I began to show verbally an appreciation for good plays by players of both teams, they seemed not only to see me differently, but even their opponents. 

It is commonplace to hear a referee say “nice save” to the goalie as he skates to his face-off positions, or for the linesmen to come into a goalmouth scrum after the whistle and say “good hustle” but it is often such a mechanical response that the players can see it as ingenuous.  When you react immediately to a good play, the players can see that you respect their efforts and respect the game.  It allows you to be more openly communicative with players when trouble does come up.  For example, in the Australian Ice Hockey League this past June, I called an elbowing penalty against a Newcastle player.  He saw the Canberra attacker coming on quickly and, out of sheer reaction, lifted his arm up and the Canberra player skated right into the arm.  That player was visibly annoyed with the call, and it was my first game in this league, so I knew none of the players.  Because of the way I communicate during play, I was able to tell this player at the penalty box that I knew it was a simple reaction, that he had not intentionally elbowed this player and explain to him that, with Newcastle leading by a wide margin, if I had not made the call, then Canberra might have come out looking for revenge and the game would then take a downward turn.  The player relaxed a bit after that.  He was still annoyed at being penalized, but now he was annoyed for a different reason.  At first he was annoyed because I had made what he thought was a bad call.  Now he was annoyed that it happened to be him that ended up the sacrificial lamb for the sake of a clean finish to the hockey game.  After the game, the teams and officials went out for some food and a veteran player on the Newcastle team came up to me and told me that the elbowing call was the turning point of the game; without it the game would have gone downhill fast.  All of that happened because I counted myself a part of the hockey game, an equal participant, and not an imposing authority.

All of hockey’s participants need to realize that we have a common goal: good hockey.  We all want to see hard-fought, competitive hockey where everyone has a level of respect for the game’s other participants.  That is not accomplished by separating ourselves from each other but by realizing that we are all part of the same thing: hockey.  Officials, players and coaches should all come together to achieve our common goal.  Every month or two, we should all get out on the ice on a Saturday morning and play some shinny together.  Afterwards we should all watch Hockey Night in Canada and enjoy some good food while we talk hockey – not just coaching, not just officiating, and not just playing, but hockey.  Remember always this simple phrase:

Be a Fan at Heart.

And so I sign off this editorial:

Yours in Hockey,

Duncan C. Pike

Player, Coach, Official and Fan