NHL OFFICIATING

CONFERENCE CALL WITH THE NHL'S DIRECTOR OF OFFICIATING, STEPHEN WALKOM

Q. Obviously there's been a lot of talk among players, and certainly fans as well with regard to the new obstruction standard, and I guess my question to you is historically we've tried to do that in the past and there was the feeling that everyone had good intentions but time tile it was difficult it maintain that standard. Are you more confident this time around? It seems like everyone is on board from players, coaches and general managers that you will be able to maintain that standard throughout the season.

STEPHEN WALKOM: Thanks for the question. I think what we have to do is look at the basis for why we have optimism this time. And the reason for it is there is -- this is a new standard of enforcement on existing rules. The cliche, obstruction, is no longer anywhere in the rulebook. We're just focusing on what needs to be improved in the game to create more offense and more offensive opportunities in the game.

And this time, it wasn't just a couple of people that got together and decided that these were the things that needed to be done to fix the game. This was a whole process, it took a year to do, and there were players involved and there were GM's involved and coaches involved and officials involved. But more importantly, they looked at the concerns of the fans, and that's why we're where we are today.
 
I think the reason that this will be -- that this time it will work is that our focus is on the puck carrier as well as the non-puck carrier. If we can free up the puck carrier in the game, I think we can create the excitement that the fans have desired for some time.

Q. If I could just follow up, how long do you think it will take, just with your background in the game, for players to come to realize that it's not going to change, and therefore, adjust their game so that we won't see the dueling power plays that I'm assuming we'll see from the beginning of the season?

STEPHEN WALKOM: The league is working hard right now behind the scenes to accelerate the process; meaning, the teams have all received, the coaches and the players and the managers, have all received DVD's. Our guys have gone through a training camp here. We're actually officiating games so that we can get into the right mindset, because it's not just the players’ culture and the coaches’ culture that needs to change. It's the officiating culture, as well, because what were accepted practices in the past will no longer be accepted practices in the future.

So with all of that going on and us having pretty much an open door policy in regard to the rules with the teams at exhibition games, we're hoping that the learning curve is accelerated. However, when the games start, let's recognize that when a player gets beat by another player with the puck, now the player is going to have to make a decision: Do I hook and hold him, or do I let him go? And sometimes it won't even be that slow. It will be much quicker than that; he'll just react, and his reaction could in turn put him in the penalty box.

So I don't think we will eliminate fouls in the hockey game, but we will definitely enforce the fouls that do take place.

Q. Can you give us some idea how many referees and linemen there will be this season, whether that's an increase or decrease from 2003-2004 and the names of any new officials or those retiring, please.

STEPHEN WALKOM: This year we will have 33 referees and 34 linesman, and then we'll have ten full-time contracted minor league referees. That's a decrease. The actual numbers, the 33 and the 34, are the same for the referees and two less or three less for the linesmen. The minor league contracted guys, there's two or three less this year.

The changes that you will note will be the retirement of Terry Gregson, Ray Scapinello, Randy Mitton, Danny McCourt and Kevin Collins, as well as the tragic loss of Stephane Provost.

The gentlemen that have been promoted from the lining ranks, they were promoted a year ago but we had the lockout would be: David Brisebois and Angelo D'Amico, and the promoted referees from the minor leagues would be Wes McCauley and Danny O'Rourke.

Q. In a perfect world if you had to do it over again, could you have moved your camp up a week? Or if you had 33 referees, would you have liked to sent a referee to every team during their early days of training camp so the players can see right off the bat what they are going to call and what they are not going to call?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Well, before our guys, whatever city they were in, a lot of the camps started later for the players than our camp started. So in some situations, we are going to be able to get to the training camps. And a lot of times the players that are going to be playing in other levels are not going to be the guys that are going to actually be playing in the exhibition games.

So in an ideal world, we would have loved to have every team at our training camp so we are able to educate them here, but we think with the DVD and with the openness during exhibition, that we should really accelerate the learning curve of the players. I mean, these guys are highly skilled and they can adapt, or they should be able to adapt quickly.

Q. In the past referees have often talked to the captains maybe before a game, but I always get the feeling that after they talk to them for a couple of minutes, the players' eyes glaze over. They have a game to play and are not really paying too much attention to what the referees are saying. Do you anticipate that it will be different this time around?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Well, I think in terms of understanding what the new standard of enforcement is on existing rules, I believe the players are going to be active in listening, because this is a big change in our hockey culture for everybody in the game. Because the accepted practices of the player continually cross-checking in front of the net for a player, wrapping a player and holding him along the boards, and for the puck carrier to be tugged, hooked and held and be poked all the way up the ice; if any of those penalties were called in the past, they would be looked upon as poor judgment or you don't know what you're calling. So that's a big change for the players, so they want to come to understand it. And it's a big change for our officials because we want to move along the learning curve to call it.

So I'm thinking that we will see a real good response from the players. But when the puck drops opening night, it's about wins and losses, and there isn't anyone in the rink that doesn't come there to win except for the officials.

So in terms of tuning the refs in and turning the refs out, I think they want to understand the rules so that they don't commit fouls. But please, let's be realistic, they will commit fouls, and that's all a part of trying to win a hockey game.

Q. I always say guys from North Bay do well and you seem to live up to that. If I can start, a couple years ago when the league tried a crackdown, your predecessor had told me that maybe some referees could possibly be sent down as some kind of discipline if they were not towing the line on what you guys were trying it do. What kind of power do you have at your disposal to make sure that obviously your directions are being followed to a T?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Well, obviously our guys are looking, their focus is on the mission at hand, and that's the NHL standard. They are all going to work towards it. We are going to use all resources at our disposal in terms of officiating managers in field, viewing them to ensure that they are on standard. We are going to be using a video. The officials are going to get a DVD after the game so that if they are off-standard, they can check quickly to be on standard. As well, we are going to be educating a whole host of video technicians that are going to be watching every game and viewing these games to try to keep us from slipping 100, 200 games away.

I think the way we want to view it, though, is not so much on statistics. I think it's important to view the game itself and see: Is there offense, are there more offensive opportunities, are the skill players being allowed to play with the mind set on the new standard of enforcement.

And I think it's real easy at times for us to look to statistics to say, oh, it's off, because I think we all realize that if you call something and the person doesn't want to do it, then they won't commit the infraction again. Of course there will be less statistics.

But what's important is that if the defenseman's beat and now the offensive player has the puck, is he being hooked and held? If the answer is yes, then we are off-standard. If the answer is no and the stats are down, the game is still good and that's really what we're looking towards.

Q. As a completely different follow-up question, I talked to you during the lockout and a couple of your colleagues about basically surviving the lockout. Can you tell us how everyone has sort of gotten through it? Obviously I think a couple of guys told me it was pretty tough. Is everything okay with everyone in the field?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Yeah, our guys, I mean one of the first things we did at camp was team-building prior to ever digging into the rules. We really dug into ourselves to see how we could best work with one another to achieve optimum performance every night.

We went through an awful lot. It's bad enough to go through a lockout, and the guys are all very proud of the decision they made not to take work from others, and it's something that they will never regret. I know I was the leader of the association when we did it. And really, the whole lockout in terms of the finances are moot compared to the tragic loss of Stephane Provost.

So our guys have rallied together in recognizing how fragile life can be and how privileged they are to work in the NHL. So there's been a lot of healing here at camp.

Q. Was part of that healing, there seems to be quite a division when the VanHellemond decision was made. The camp of referees and officials seemed to be quite divided over that, and I wonder if that was part of the mending that you had to do with your team-building?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Yeah, we decided that we were going to look forward and only look back to remember people that had -- that were no longer with us. It was a process and we're stilling going through it.

The guys have really come together. This camp is like a camp that I always wanted to go to and participate in; that's how I looked at organizing this camp. And having the guys work together to remember that it doesn't matter about a team or it doesn't matter about a player and it doesn't matter about anything but what the NHL standard is, because that's what's important. Because if we maintain it, keep it and work towards it, the fans should be satisfied.

Q. If I could follow up with another question, despite the fact that you're from North Bay, you're in the prime of your career and considered one of the better referees, why did you decide to leave that profession and do what you're doing now?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Well, you know, just going back to your original question, I knew our group was fractured and beaten down. I knew there was going to be a great responsibility placed on the officials coming back to improve the game. And honestly, I just looked at it and said where can I best serve the game right now? When Collie and Gary came up with the idea of me coming off the ice, I just viewed it that way. I didn't really look at what I was doing personally. I thought, you know what, where can I serve the game best? And right now, I can serve the game best right here, so that's why I'm doing it.

Q. When you say you want to change the officiating culture, what specifically do you mean? Do you have to get rid of the tendency for officials to quote, manage the game, or do you mean something else?

STEPHEN WALKOM: I think what I mean by that is that all of the accepted practices in the game relating to penalties on the puck carrier; and all of the accepted practices in the game relating to holding along the boards, wrapping a player; and the accepted practices of, especially when you're shorthanded that you can punish, I'm not talking about guiding or battling in front of it, I mean continuous cross-checks in front of the net. All of those accepted practices in the game that we have accepted that have become part of our culture; that have been indoctrinated into us since probably most of us even started refereeing, that's what I'm talking about.

Q. The "let' em play" culture?

STEPHEN WALKOM: The "let' em play" culture spawned from the fact that the players themselves used to let each other play. And now it's been coached into the game, defense has been coached into the game so well that we don't allow the players to play like they can.

Q. Just on another topic, have you given any thought to partnering referees in the same way that Major League Baseball sends its officiating crews on the road together for long periods of time?

STEPHEN WALKOM: We are going to do that this year. We are going to work hard to have our guys work in smaller groups. The linesmen for a long time, I mean, nobody ever complains about the linesmen because the linesmen have worked together in partnership for so long that they are really good at doing it. They are regionalized to some degree in doing that.

The referees who accelerate our ability to work together better, we're going to try -- I'm thinking we'll probably hit 75 or 80 percent of the games where we have them working in like an eight-man unit where you would see all of those guys during the year, and those would be the guys that you tend to work with.

We are going to do everything we can to allow the four-man system to work best. That's our goal and that's our objective with it.

Q. I was talking to a couple of players in the Ducks' camp yesterday, and one of them said that he expects there's going to be 40 or 50 power plays a game. The other one said that he had seen the video and he was really concerned. He said, "It's going to be hard to call, you've either got to call everything or just let it go. It's going to be tough for the referees." How would you respond to that, and have you provided avenues for players to either ask you or ask referees questions about how they do intend to interpret everything and call everything?

STEPHEN WALKOM: I believe his response was a normal response, because it is -- it's a big cultural change in hockey. All of those accepted practices of hooking and holding and poking and wrapping and continuously cross-checking a player, we're removing from the game. So when you have them embedded in you and you remember them, your response is going to be whoa. So that's okay.

But how are we going to go about doing it? Every player is going to have a choice. His choice is to commit the foul or not to commit the foul. I'm not going to predict how many penalties there are going to be in a hockey game. All I'm going to predict is that our guys collectively are going to go out there and call the standard as they are directed to do. And whatever the result is, it is. And really, that's all I can say on it.

Q. I mean, do you allow players to approach referees during a game, perhaps at the start of a period and say, "Look, why did you call XYZ and not call this?" Is there some kind of allowance for communication if players generally have questions about this?

STEPHEN WALKOM: I'm sorry. I didn't even answer that. Yeah, through the exhibition, we are going to run -- we are going to be open and available to any team to be able to accelerate the learning curve for these rules.

I think it's important that we don't underestimate the players. You know, they will walk the line right to the very edge on any rule because it takes them towards their objective, and that is winning the hockey game.
But I believe that by the end of exhibition, by the time we're done with the games in exhibition, it will be very clear to them exactly what the standard is.

Q. We've talked a lot about the obstruction. I want to venture off that for a little bit and just ask your opinion on which one or two of the other rule changes do you think might be the most difficult for players and even your officials to adjust to?

STEPHEN WALKOM: I believe that the -- that the long pass; the fact that there's going to be such quick transition from one end to the other, and now you're going to be down at the other end possibly making a line call. So the transition through the neutral zone will be huge.

I think another big thing for our guys will be just the speed of the play. And the movement of the players will be so fast and quick that they will have to really heighten their awareness on the ice to be able to make the calls.

And probably the toughest to implement right away will be the changes on the icing, for the team that ices the puck isn't allowed to make a line change unless there's a penalty or penalties.

Our guys have been doing games here every day at camp because we're running a mini-tournament and we're getting used to going through the processes. I think they are going to -- not that they are going it find it easy. I think they are highly skilled so they are adapting to it really quickly.

Q. I just wondered regarding D'Amico and McCauley, do you think there will be pressure on them the same way there would be pressure on a player from their peers in the officiating community just because their parents were such famous people as far as officiating goes?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Unfortunately we lost John D'Amico this past year as well. And I never mentioned him on the call and I was remiss not to. He was a great Hall of Famer and a great man and a friend of mine. We've memorialized him all week, as well. In fact, the tournament today the guys are playing for is the D'Amico Cup.

You know, those two guys, they are used to being children of ex-officials and they know that they have a lot to live up to. But both of them have what it takes to be able to live up to that, and they are a part of the group and the group just takes them for who they are which I think is great.

Q. Both of their dads worked in Toronto, do you see them getting a lot of assignments in this area?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Yeah, I think they will probably -- I mean, Angelo, is based in Toronto; whereas Wes is based on the East Coast north of Boston. I would imagine you'd probably see Angelo more than you see Wes. They are the same time zone, so there's a good chance you'll get to see both of them.

Q. What is the thinking behind the new goalie rule, limiting their movement, aimed at goalies such as Martin Brodeur, who not only help defensively, but offensively as well, especially on the rush during the power play?

STEPHEN WALKOM: I don't really think the new rule was aimed at any goalie in particular. I think all of the rules and the changes were designed to create more offense and more offensive opportunities, and the way you do that is to entice the forward to forecheck.

So if you minimize where the goalie can play the puck, then a team will probably be inclined to dump the puck in and go chase it in a corner because they know they will have a chance to get it before the goalie gets there, because the goalie is not allowed to go there.

So I really think it had more to do with creating offense, and you know, less to do with any one goalie in the National Hockey League.

Q. Maybe you can tell us how many penalties were called last year or two years ago in games so we can keep track as to how many more penalties you are calling now. I mean, I don't know how many penalties per game there were. Who would know that?

STEPHEN WALKOM: You know what, that goes to my original point, and it goes to my point to everyone in the media. I think everyone on this call has a great responsibility to the game and to make sure that what we report is not statistics. What we report is what really happens in the game itself.

And to me, it doesn't matter to me what was called in the past. What matters to me in the future is the standard of enforcement being upheld; or, is the standard of enforcement being adhered to by the players. If it is, the result is the same. And if the result is the same, then stats aren't really relevant.

So I'm not looking at any stats because I don't want our guys thinking they have to call a quota. Because if they are going out there and focusing on something other than the new standard of enforcement, then it will take their focus away from where it should be.

Q. I just want to clarify the thing about you're going to partner up referees. So linesmen who happen to live, say, in the Edmonton area or out west often work the games in Edmonton. Would you say that referees from western Canada would be partnered together?

STEPHEN WALKOM: I think what we're trying to do -- what we're doing, not what we're trying to do is we're going to work the guys in groups so that they work well together.

So, say, for instance, I gave you an example. Say you have Ian Walsh and Paul Devorski are in a group with six other guys. They will cycle through those six guys so that they get to know each other and get to know each other's tendencies. A lot of the linesmen, you could almost put them in any game together now anywhere, and they work together as partners for so long, that they are accustomed to it.

I mean, for anyone that's ever officiated, we used to do the two-man system. That's all anyone ever did. So I always found it humorous when we went from the two-man to the three-man to the four-man that anyone would complain. Then I started thinking, well, why are people complaining? Well, they must be complaining because they don't believe that there is consistency there. They don't believe that the partners are working well together.

So to get most out of officials, we thought that if we minimize the number of guys they are working with, they should be able to perform at a higher level together when they do work together.

Q. Watching your video and with all of the talk about the changes and the new standard, do you think that the players and the coaches and all of the players, all of the coaches, and more particularly the fans, really understand the dramatic change that you guys are trying to pull off here?

STEPHEN WALKOM: I think the fans are just going to be looking for results myself, I really do. I really think the fans are just going to be looking at the product itself. So they won't understand the full change in the culture.

But I do think the players and the coaches do understand it, because they were all part of the process about improving a great game, and so I do think they do understand it. That doesn't mean you're going to get full support of all of the changes when a team loses a hockey game, because as you know, they will be looking for a reason why they didn't win. We fully understand that.

Q. Are you concerned at all with the change with the goaltending and with all of these changes about how there's been talk about how when pucks get dumped in and guys are racing for the puck, the defenseman being left vulnerable? Are you concerned about that and will there be a message sent to forwards that, you know, talking about making choices, you're going to have to make a choice to be smart and not try to take a guy's head of when you're both racing for a puck and instead try to play the puck instead of playing for the defenseman?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Well, I think that's a good point, because any time you have a race for a puck, there's a danger there. And there needs to be a certain respect given to one another, because there's dangers all over the ice. Hockey is a dangerous game; that's what makes it so alluring.

And yeah, there is going to be -- there are going to be races. There are going to be collisions. Our officials are being told to ensure that one player doesn't take advantage of another on such a play. And if so, then we assess the appropriate penalty: Charging, boarding, hitting from behind, whatever we can do to keep the players playing safe.

I think you make a great point on that. Like any other rule, it's all about choices out there. So a lot of the onus does fall on the players.

Q. The question I have is more about what you guys are doing to prepare. Every team is in a training camp right now and you talk about your camp. Can you give me an idea of what the daily routine is for the officials and just a schedule of the day and how you're going through it?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Sure. Our schedule has basically started this way from day one. The guys are getting up around 6:00 A.M. We stretch at 6:15, usually between 6:15 and 6:30, and that's with our fitness trainer that works for the National Hockey League. Then off to the rink we go. Previous to doing any of that, we did team-building, medicals, fitness testing, much like the players do.

But our day-to-day regime is over to the rink. We've been having these guys either skate or play in hockey games so that we can get used to the many changes in the game. Following that, we come back, and the guys, after showering and everything of course, we're into the classroom and we work on rules. And we've built a video rulebook. Since the guys were out of the game for so long, we started right from the start of the book. We worked our way through it rule by rule by rule, so that we have immersed ourselves, both the linesmen and the referees in the game.

Then we have lunch and then in the afternoon we go back to the rink and we do the rink deal again. And then in the afternoon, we come back and we do it again, the rules, video. Then we break, the guys usually have supper and then we may have a short meeting after that and then we call it a day. Then 6:00 comes pretty early again the next day.

So that's been our routine at camp. It's a cracker of a day, I'll tell you that.

Q. How many days are we talking?

STEPHEN WALKOM: We're talking seven days, seven of the finest.

Q. Now when you say, obviously you get up and stretch to go to the rink, play hockey, do you have teams that are playing and the officials are officiating, or are the officials actually playing games with the rules themselves?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Our guys are playing the game with sticks and gloves and helmets and goalies. Our guys are actively reffing those games. So two linesmen, two referees, so that all of the quirks of the system -- and then after every game we do a shootout so that we get used to that. Because we need to familiarize ourselves with all of the procedures that are necessary to make this go when we are up and running. Plus, we knew that we were going to be interacting a lot with the teams and the players, and we needed to have the answers to all of the questions.
So sometimes in our classroom session, like today, we would be doing a session on answering questions, dealing with objections, sending the right message to the teams and the players. All of that is part of our job.

Q. Do they rotate who officiates the game and who plays?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Absolutely.

Q. They fight over that?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Well, there's a bit of a battle over that, because some guys want to referee early so they can play in the later games. But everybody is getting the opportunity and some more than once to referee hockey.

Q. How many teams do you have put together?

STEPHEN WALKOM: We have four teams put together. So some games your bench can be a little short when guys are reffing.

Q. And where is this? Where are you guys working out?

STEPHEN WALKOM: We are in Fort Erie, just across the border from Buffalo.

Q. Regarding, I know the referees are based in certain areas obviously to save travel and wear and tear and all that, but there's always a sense in the West Coast that you don't get to see all of the referees who are considered the better ones; that there's a sense out here that maybe some referees don't come out here or just one or two games a season. What are your plans, do you want all referees to referee every team, or are you going to strictly adhere to geographical assignments?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Well, I can assure you everybody wants to go out to L.A., all of our guys do. That's why we put them in groups of eight, the referees, so that we could do just that; so that the guys could see the whole league and because we think it's fair to our teams to do that.

I'm not sure what the past practices were, but we're going to have good referees in every rink this year, who are ready and able to go. And since I have had the pleasure of working with a lot of the guys, I haven't had the pleasure yet to evaluate them all, but of course they will be evaluated. But from the get-go-go, I'm assuming they are all going to do a great job. So it doesn't matter if they are in Buffalo or they are in L.A.; I'm expecting good officiating every night.

Q. Is there also a provision for evaluating officials at the end of the season, and if somebody is not meeting your standards, do they get relegated, or what's the process involved with that?

STEPHEN WALKOM: We are working through that process right now. The guys today, we built on what we consider the NHL standard for performance. They will be evaluated with that in mind this year.
That's ongoing. We have people in the field everywhere. We have five, six people out there watching these guys and trying to keep them on their mark relative to standards.

So that process is ongoing, along with the use of video, along with the use of DVDs, along with the use of self-evaluation. We are working, taking the technology that we have today, coupling it with men that we have in the field, and try to do everything we can to have great officiating every night.

Q. Last week Marty Brodeur made the comment that the good goalies will adjust to the new equipment and rule changes and the bad won't. Do you agree with that, and do you think that there's been a tendency over last few years for goalies to get a little lazy because of the bigger equipment?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Well, to me, all of the goalies in the National Hockey League are good, so I mean, I really can't comment on one or the other. I think what's important is that Chris King and his department have done a great job in hockey ops of drawing the line in the sand in regard to goaltending equipment to give the offensive player someplace to shoot at.

I don't really think any of the goalies are lazy. I think they are finally-tuned athletes. I haven't seen one that I would consider out of shape or anything but a phenomenal athlete.

Q. I stepped out of a scrimmage about ten minutes into your call so, forgive me if you were asked this right off the bat, but Gary Bettman made it clear when he reinstated Todd Bertuzzi that Bertuzzi would be held to a quote, higher standard, and that he would be especially scrutinized this season. How does that from a referee's perspective manifest itself?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Well, I think we need to look at the game and how the officials view the game and judge the game and call it. I can assure you after having just been on the ice, you never really have time to judge who is on the ice; or it happens so fast, you just react to it.

So I'm thinking that that's more of an issue outside of the game itself; meaning, that penalties will be assessed that occur in the game when infractions are committed. But no individual within the game is viewed any differently when the game is being officiated.

Q. I just wondered, you talked a little about the exhibition season and how there will be some leniency trying to explain to players and coaches what's going on with the new standard, however when the regular season starts and because the coaches are supposedly on board on this, will you guys be quicker on the ice to hand out bench minors to coaches who give you some grief?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Well, that's a good question. Should we be -- no. (Laughing). I think the way we are going to view it is it is important for us as officials to separate emotion from abuse, and all I can say is if there's abuse, then the penalties are there for us to call. But we are not going out there with anything preconceived in that regard.

Q. Who in your opinion is the best player among the officials?

STEPHEN WALKOM: Oh, we've got some dandies, a couple. Danny O'Rourke and Wes McCauley, are quite good; they have got fleet afoot. And Chris King, I tell you he's a lot better out than playing in goal.
 

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