Ice Hockey Officials

[ilyazhito]

Does anyone else in this forum officiate (ice) hockey? I first thought about officiating hockey when I met a guy at an umpire camp who was also a hockey official. I've been playing goalie for a little over a year, learned how to skate, and now am practicing skating before I can buy my officiating stuff for hockey and register with USA Hockey. I'd like to hear about your hockey officiating experiences and see if anything from baseball helps with hockey and vice versa.

If anyone knows of other good resources for hockey officials, please let me know. So far, I have only found https://www.reddit.com/r/hockeyrefs/ and various Facebook groups. There was also a webpage made by a hockey official in Winnipeg, https://www.wpgrefs.com/, but it is Canada-specific. If there are any good hockey referee websites or communities in the US, I would love to learn more.

[834k3r]

I'm a bit jealous. I love hockey (second favorite sport), but don't skate nearly well enough to wear the stripes for a hockey game.

[ilyazhito]

I love hockey too. So much so that I enjoy playing goalie on a beer league team and I am looking forward to reffing hockey. 

[Richvee]

11 hours ago, 834k3r said:

I'm a bit jealous. I love hockey (second favorite sport), but don't skate nearly well enough to wear the stripes for a hockey game.

I was going to say, if they let me ref from a raised platform  at the red line, (think a volleyball ref), I'd sign up tomorrow 😁

[beerguy55]

First - you better get really good at skating.   And you better get good at cardio.  

Hockey officials, more than any other sport, really have to understand the game...so much of your positioning is anticipating the play so you're not reacting.  The "head on a swivel" thing is a bit of a myth too...refs/linesmen who are good at anticipating the play don't need to do this.

What can a baseball umpire take - game management is just as important in hockey as it is in baseball.  Maybe a bit moreso.  If you called the game to the letter of the rule you'd have whistles and penalties every ten seconds.  But you can't let things get out of hand either.   Teamwork with your partner is important too.  The refs work together, the linesmen work together...with a handful of exceptions their roles don't over lap....but that doesn't mean they don't have to communicate with each other too.

[HokieUmp]

21 hours ago, beerguy55 said:

First - you better get really good at skating.   And you better get good at cardio.  

Hockey officials, more than any other sport, really have to understand the game...so much of your positioning is anticipating the play so you're not reacting.  The "head on a swivel" thing is a bit of a myth too...refs/linesmen who are good at anticipating the play don't need to do this.

What can a baseball umpire take - game management is just as important in hockey as it is in baseball.  Maybe a bit moreso.  If you called the game to the letter of the rule you'd have whistles and penalties every ten seconds.  But you can't let things get out of hand either.   Teamwork with your partner is important too.  The refs work together, the linesmen work together...with a handful of exceptions their roles don't over lap....but that doesn't mean they don't have to communicate with each other too.

And all of that is part of why hockey is my Absolute Favourite Sport.  I've been a baseball fan since my first O's game in '72 - when they *weren't* a near-perennial laughingstock.  And I'm in my 21st calendar year of umpiring, and I'm pretty decent for the ball I do.  But hockey is the sport that gets my blood up.