Former NHL referee Dave Jackson just answered Cole Caufield's comment that officials get to go home "and chill" after a game.
Caufield blasted NHL officials after the Canadiens' overtime loss to the Wild and wanted referees answering for their calls. Jackson, who worked the league as an official, says the picture of a relaxed night at home doesn't match his own career.
"I can only speak, I guess, from my personal experience," Jackson said. "But there were many games during my career where you'd go home and you literally would not get a minute of sleep."
He described lying in bed staring at the ceiling, replaying a sequence and asking himself what he could have done better. And there's the phone, since he was also expecting a call from his boss in the morning.
Jackson compared the feeling to golf. "It doesn't matter what you shoot, you're never happy with your game," he said, adding that an official deals in negativity all the time. A player who scores a hat-trick has tangible stats to show for his night, while a referee is left with self-affirmation.
The worst stretch came at the end of a road trip. A tough game there meant "three or four or five days to stew over it," he said, and it gets in your head. After a rough night, he always wanted a game the next day.
Why a forceful chop gets called, and who decides
Jackson also spoke about the standard on sticks broken by slashes, a hot topic around the league. He said nothing in the rule book mentions sticks, but for years now eliminating a player without the puck by breaking his stick or knocking it out of his hand has been an interference penalty.
When the player has the puck, a forceful chop that eliminates him gets called no matter where on the stick it lands. From there it's a judgment call on what counts as forceful. Sticks also break more easily now, Jackson said, than the Sher-Wood PMPs of his day.
He was just as direct on the situation where the referee closest to a play stays quiet and the one farthest away blows the whistle. On a non-scoring chance or a non-violent incident, the official defers to his closer partner if he's sure that partner had a good look.
On a dangerous play or a scoring chance, an official who's 100 per cent sure isn't looking for approval. He's empowered to make the call.
The part that matters most for Caufield's argument is what comes after the whistle. Jackson said Stephen Walkom, the NHL's director of officiating, has given officials the authority to discuss any call they make, because the league wants it right. In his day, once your arm went up, you lived with it.
That is a step toward the accountability Caufield asked for, and it fits with Renaud Lavoie's report that the NHL wants to give officials video replay access after the Canadiens winger's penalty against the Wild.
Caufield, who has 12 goals and 19 points in 20 games, is back on the ice Monday when the Canadiens visit the Rangers, after Saturday's 4-1 loss to the Avalanche.
This article was written with the help of artificial intelligence, based on public reports and official sources.
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