New ref boss promises right calls
Canadian Press
9/14/2005 4:22:03 PM
Stephen Walkom wants everyone to know this time it's going to be different.
After years of failed attempts at policing hooking and holding, the NHL's new director of officiating insists this crackdown is for real.
"It's a big cultural change in hockey," Walkom said Wednesday on a conference call. "All those accepted practices of hooking and holding and poking, and wrapping and continuously cross-checking a player - we're removing them from the game. So when you as a player have them embedded, your response is going to be: `Whoa."'
Walkom sent out a video to teams around the league to illustrate what's going to be called.
This year it's by the book. Don't touch a player unless it's a clean check. Keep your stick to yourself.
Expect a ton of penalties and power plays in the exhibition season that starts Friday night.
"How are we going to go about it? Every player will have a choice: commit the foul or not to commit the foul," said Walkom, a 41-year-old native of North Bay, Ont. "I'm not going to predict how many penalties there are going to be in a game, all I'm going to predict is that our guys are going to call the standard as they're directed to do. And whatever the result is, it is."
This time it does indeed appear different.
For starters, everyone from GMs and coaches and players got involved in coming up with this crackdown. And perhaps more significantly, the NHL took one of its top referees - still in his prime - and put him in the boardroom to lead the crackdown from up above.
But Walkom's appointment may not have been only hockey-related. A popular figure with his colleagues, he was perhaps also needed to help bring together a group that some say was divided when the former director of officiating, Andy VanHellemond, resigned in July 2004.
"I knew our group was fractured and beaten down and I knew there would be a greater responsibility placed on those coming back to improve the game," Walkom said. "And honestly I just looked at it and asked: `Where can I best serve the game right now?"'
"Right now I can serve the game best right here and that's why I'm doing it."
The lockout was hard on many on-ice officials. While some needed to take up normal day jobs such as selling cars or building kitchen cabinets, there are also stories of some having to borrow money to stay afloat.
Walkom addressed much of that during the first day of the referee/linesmen training camp in Fort Erie, Ont., last Friday.
"One of the first things we did at camp was team-building prior to digging into the rules," Walkom said. "We first dug into ourselves to see how we could best work with one another. We went through an awful lot.
"And really, the whole lockout in terms of the finances, that's moot compared to the tragic loss of Stephane Provost (who died in a motorcycle accident in Florida in April). Our guys have rallied in recognizing how fragile life can be and how privileged they are to work in the NHL. There's been a lot of healing here at camp."
Walkom says this year will be different
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