Pot Pouri - Mind Dump

1. He Ain't That Good --

I totally thought about the dichotomy (that's the condition of  being mutually exclusive) of hockey refereeing and how you are in a 'brotherhood' and yet you are in direct competition with each person.  I mean...how can I wish you well as my 'brother in arms', yet hope you fail so I can get bigger and better assignments.

I thought about this dichotomy when I read this [article].  Can you see any comparisons with reffing?

Here's an excerpt from that article:

"As players, we continually evaluate our teammates and our competition saying, “he’s not that good” under our breath and to each other because “I” need to be better than “him” to survive. Now, as a writer, all-too-often I find myself saying “he’s not that good” only to get responses from readers in stats, dimensions and potential.

I’ve never been a guy prone to negativity – “he’s not that good” is just fully burned into my competitive psyche. To be good, you learn to think you’re the best."

I, as a referee, really used to go through this all the time.  Entering my 22nd year of refereeing, having done pretty much everything I have wanted to do, and, thankfully now with no regrets, I don't look at guys like that anymore.  Well...not as much anymore.  I think it's human nautre to do so.

** Here's my advice to you -- as you do this mind-thought process on guys who are working levels higher than you, I caution you to also question:

• how many miles has this guy put on his car to get where he's at?
• how many more off-ice workouts has he done than me?
• how many times did he show up at an arena at 7 a.m., just to get better?
• how many more times has he totally busted ass to get to the goal line than me?
• (if he's at the end of his career, and obviously hasn't put in the effort like he did to get to where he is now), ask yourself 'what did he do to get there?'

Then you can have the best answer out there, BECAUSE THE MAJORITY OF REFS I WORK WITH ALL WANT TO GO TO SOME HIGH LEVEL.  UNFORTUNATELY, THEY SEE HOW DAMN HARD IT IS TO GET THERE AND THEY DECIDE THE PRIZE IS NOT WORTH THE PRICE.  Oh well...

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When you watch a high level game on t.v. ( that would include Division I College Hockey and NHL), I will just say that you have no idea the B.S. that goes on behind the scenes, and all I have to say is the guys working those games are tough bastards.  Mentally, I mean.  You have to be mentally tough.  Real tough.  Are you tough?

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I read about a guy who is doing his 19th round of P90X.  I read that and say, "that's friggin' sweet!  I can do that, too!"  And, then I go out to prove it right.

You see, my skill level is "so-so".  Always has.  The difference is I'll kick your fanny.  You ain't going to out work me.  With the hesitation of sounding corny, the most accurate quote out there is:

"The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary."

One of my most favorite "manly-but-you-can-still-cry" movie is "Pursuit of Happyness".  In the 'special features' of the DVD, Chris Gardner talks about how every day you have to bang the hammer at the anvil.  That's how you dig yourself out of the most desperate places to be a HUGE (I mean HUGE) success.

So...get of your ass and work, dammit!  And do it today, please.  The world needs more "roll up your sleeves" types.

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Time:         3 Months, during Your Hockey Season, when You are Working Hockey Games that Matter
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Instructors: Refs Who Have Been, Done That, but have little or NO teaching background.

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Fun Friday = Greatest Hits Ever - Any Tai Chi?

It was at about this time, in the fall of 1997, that I worked my first USHL game as a referee -- Twin Cities Vulcans vs. North Iowas Huskies at Bloomington Ice Gardens.  I was nervous as all get out.  My officiating career in the USHL up to that point had consisted of two seasons as a linesman -- the first year working two games (yep, a big two games) and the second season working my way all the way to the playoffs.  Of course, I 'cut my teeth' working the MJHL as a referee the previous season.   I had also refereed two pre-season USHL games in beautiful Hayward, WI, which included the Huskies and the Vulcans (and I totally blew a fight call in that game, which pissed off both coaches).

So, here I am, striping my first game.  Nervous.  Prepared. Ready.  I will honestly admit that the two coaches involved in the game scared me -- P.K. O'Handley for North Iowa and Jim Johanson for the Vulcans (a side note -- between the second and third period, in which the Huskies were down by 3 goals, I heard P.K. just BLAST his team with one of the greatest blue streaks of swearing ever -- I honestly thought they would come out and start a war in the third.  They actually rallied to win the game = phew!).

It was in that game that I think I had my greatest "check" ever.  I was so concerned about getting up and down the ice with all of my effort (that's a philosophy, folks...flying to the net/hustle/hard work), and a long pass to the far blue line was caught by Mike Possin of the Vulcans.  For whatever reason, rather than proceeding into the attacking zone, he doubled back with the puck, doing a 180 degree turnaround.

Well, I had a full head of steam and I just BLEW HIM UP.  I swear that it was like cartoons...we both went up into the air by a few feet and then flew back and we both landed on our backs.  And it was right in front of the North Iowa bench.  North Iowa absolutely LOVED IT!  All I did was look at the player and say, "What the hell are you doing?"

R.H. "Bob" Peters, Bemidji State

The question is, "What's your best check?"  Ever done a Tai Chi?  That's an R.H. Peters saying for when the checker gets pancaked by the puck carrier.  You know...when the checker gets checked?  I have had to do a few of those in my day, too.  It was like, "It's either you or me who's going down.  Guess what?  It's gonna be you!, " and I drop my shoulder to drop the player. 

Hopefully, your story does not lead to a goal or something screwy like that.  Here's a couple for you:


Goldy Gopher takes out ref (instead of mocking a player praying):

It Almost Makes You Want to

It almost makes you want to cheer and say, "These Finns are sweet!".  Actually, I like the music and the Finn accent.  Cool.  Real cool.  I love the tongue click by Selanne...



(Go, Mikko, you Wild captain, you, number one star last night). pssst...he's in the Nike Finn commercial...the dude with blonde hair and with ripped abs (yeah, I looked).  Does this next video have a #80 linesman from Minot, ND cruising around?:

Ode to More Tough Guys (esp. from MN!)

Gotta give some props to a northern MN boy (by way of other parts), Dustin Byfuglein:

This Will Mean More to MN Wild Fans

So...the Minnesota Wild are 1-4 and sucking some serious eggs early in the season.  I am not going to pull a "I told you so here", because that is not my point.  I am going to pull a "Jacques Lemaire (and even Risebrough) were smarter than you thought," and do my best effort to stickhandle that into refereeing...

First of all, the starters:

1. Lemaire quits last year, everybody hates the "trap", MN Wild play boring hockey.
2. BTW, the Wild missed the playoffs by 3 points, missing Gaborik for 65 games and Brent Burns for the last month.  Not bad when a team is out its best forward and best defenseman for a long stretch.
3. Still, the Wild fans can't stand Lemaire's boring hockey.  They like the Red Wings and Penguins hockey.
4. A new GM and Coach, who are going to do an "up tempo" play.
5. I say, "Big Whoopie," because the Wild has no talent.  They are all grit, hard work, ham and eggs, a bag of knuckles, bring in some jam, and "Attache le tuque".  Seriously...I went to one game last year where they played Thornton, Marleau, and the San Jose Sharks.  The Wild weren't that good.  But...effective.
6. The "up tempo" has the Wild sucking eggs. They aren't the Wings or Pens.
7. Here is a funny comment on Mike Russo's blog, which was dated September 11, 2009.  I will cut and paste it here...it is a 'spoof' of a Q/A that Russo had with Cliff Fletcher, the Wild GM:

Mister Know it all: The team last year was a healthy Marion Gaborik and Brent Burns away from winning the division.  Now that the team is healthy and have replaced Gaby for Havlat. How do you see your team finishing ?

Fletcher: Blank look on his face. Were changing to a more up beat style because that is how the Pens and Detroit win in the CURRENT nhl. This style of hockey will be very fun to watch.

Mister Know it all: On Russos Blog it has been determined that Winning is more important to fans then playing fun and exciting hockey if you lose doing it

Fletcher: We want to win playing up tempo hockey. We think in the end they will be more happy

Mister Know it all: The previous regime believed that the fans of Minnesota would best like a blue collar hardworking style of hockey that wins consistently year in and year out. They also believed it would be easier to achieve consistency in winning if a focus was put on a strong defensive type system that cut out unnecessary risk taking that clearly and SIMPLY defines every players defensive responsibilities on the ice.

Fletcher: Well Leopold is the owner now and he asked me to bring an up tempo style of hockey to Minnesota because all of the fans were complaining they were getting sick of watching boring hockey. I have success with the Pens with this system

Mister Know it all: How did the Pens get to being able to play the up tempo hockey with success

Fletcher: They finished last for a few years and they were able to land top players like Malkin and Crosby and others which made it easier to win playing the up tempo game

Mister Know it all: Do you think the fans of Minnesota have the patience to wait for the team to win doing your system

Fletcher: I don’t know, we will see

Mister Know it all: Lemaire said you would quickly stop the risk taking once you realize you dont have the scorers to play that way

Fletcher: That is Mr Richards department, ask him

Mister Know it all: Last year Minnesota missed the playoffs by 3 points playing without its top forward and dman all year basically. Simply put the team was destroyed by injuries.  Why did the team have success ?

2nd in the league goals against
2nd in the league on penalty kill
9th in the league on power play
Why they did not win more ?

The team was reliant on Gaby to win the close games it found themselves in. With Gaby out they were the worst 5 on 5 team in the league.  So is it reasonable to say that the fans can expect this team to be in the playoffs given these factors ?

(1) You have Havlat and we did not have Gaby last year
(2) Young players now have one more year of experience which should help Shep, Gillies, Pouliot, Clutterbuck, Cuma
(3)The team is healthy

Fletcher: Well, when you put it that way yes I would expect us to be in the playoffs.
It is quite simple Mister Know it all, We wont be 2nd in goals against this year. Plain and simply put
The trade off to get better in the spirit of the up tempo game is scoring more 5 on 5, Mister Know it all,
We think the ingredients we are looking for to get better is going from worst in the league 5 on 5 to the TOP 12 in the league.  Our GOAL for goals against is no worse then 10th in the league.  We don’t want to be any worse on the penalty kill and power play then the team was last year. We are ok with those stats.


Mister Know it all: Don’t you think its a stretch to say your team is going to go from the worst team 5 on 5 to being in the top 12, or the top 1/3 in the league 5 on 5 ? All you have essentially done is replace Gaby with Havlat for the offense- Yes the young guys will be better but it seems a stretch.

Fletcher: I am going to watch Tony Robbins and Zig Zigler and stay positive.

Mister Know it all: What about Modano as I have suggested numerous times.

Fletcher: Be patient Mister Know it all. He will be here in time. I agree with you that a motivated Modano could be our answer.

To be continued

This is soooo true....

**What does this have to do with referees?**

Confidence is a tricky thing for some guys.  Lemaire put a system forward that gave the Wild the greatest confidence they could have.  I am telling you, the Wild had NO BUSINESS being in the playoffs or in the playoff hunt last year with the talent they had.  The were (to quote R.H. "Bob" Peters), "Common people, doing common things, Uncommonly well."   I will take that any day, and that is what I look for in officials. 

• Do the common things, uncommonly well.
• Bring your pride, grit, and determination every game.
• Stick to a system that will best suit you.  Not everybody is going to be a referee like Kerry Fraser.
• Do the small things that build to small victories that lead to Big victories.
• Always know that you can work harder.
• Preparation + Having Balls (X2) = Good Luck
• Owen Nolan, Andrew Burnette, and Wes Walz can fight with me in a fox hole anytime.  Pattern your game after them, which includes HARD WORK off the ice, the correct mental mindset, and control what you can control (effort and attitude -- everything else is BEYOND your control).

It's going to be a long year for the MN Wild.  However, it will be a GREAT year for our SWAT Team of referees for Ultimate Officials.  Attache le tuque.