In ice hockey, an official is responsible for enforcing the rules and maintaining order. On-ice officials are present on the ice during the game, and traditionally wear a shirt with black and white vertical stripes. The National Hockey League (NHL) currently employs four on-ice officials in each game—two referees and two linesmen. Referees are identified by their red or orange armbands. They are responsible for the general supervision of the game, assess penalties, and conduct face-offs at the beginning of each period and after a goal is scored. When play is stopped for another reason, the face-offs are conducted by the linesmen. The linesmen are primarily responsible for violations involving the centre line and blue lines, such as icing and offside infractions.
All NHL on-ice officials are members of the National Hockey League Officials Association (NHLOA), a labour union founded in 1969. The NHLOA represents its members in matters dealing with working conditions of on-ice officials and acts as their collective bargaining agent.
Fighting is an established tradition in North American ice hockey, with a long history that involves many levels of amateur and professional play and includes some notable individual fights. Fights may be fought by enforcers, or "goons" —players whose role is to fight and intimidate—on a given team, and are governed by a system of unwritten rules that players, coaches, officials, and the media refer to as "the code". Some fights are spontaneous, while others are premeditated by the participants. While officials tolerate fighting during hockey games, they impose a variety of penalties on players who engage in fights.
In ice hockey, an official is a person who has some responsibility for enforcing the rules and maintaining the order of the game. There are two categories of officials, on-ice officials, who are the referees and linesmen that enforce the rules during gameplay, and off-ice officials, who have an administrative role rather than an enforcement role.
Kerry Fraser is a hockey analyst, broadcaster and former senior referee in the National Hockey League. During his career, he called 1,904 regular season games, 12 Stanley Cup Finals, and over 261 Stanley Cup playoff games.
Don Koharski is a retired professional ice hockey referee in the National Hockey League. He resides in Tampa, Florida, with his wife, with whom he has two sons. Starting with the 1994–95 NHL season, he wore uniform number 12, and, since the 1987–88 NHL season, he wore a helmet while refereeing NHL games.
The 1988–89 NHL season was the 72nd season of the National Hockey League. The Calgary Flames won an all-Canadian Stanley Cup Finals against the Montreal Canadiens four games to two. This remains the last time two Canadian teams faced each other for the Stanley Cup.
William McCreary is a former National Hockey League referee. Before retiring in 2011, McCreary officiated 1,737 regular season games, 297 playoff games, and one NHL All-Star Game. McCreary wore uniform number 7 since the 1994–95 NHL season and wore a helmet for most of his refereeing career. He worked fifteen Stanley Cup Finals, the 1991 Canada Cup, the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, and the 1998, 2002 and 2010 Winter Olympics, where he officiated the gold medal game each time.
Paul Devorski is a retired National Hockey League referee, who wore uniform number 10 beginning in the 1994–95 NHL season. He refereed his first NHL game on October 14, 1989, and has been wearing a helmet while refereeing NHL games since the 2005–06 NHL season. He was one of the selected referees who officiated the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals with Dan O'Halloran, and was selected again to officiate the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals along with O'Halloran, as well as the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals alongside Dennis LaRue. He is the older brother of NHL linesman Greg Devorski.
Dan O'Halloran is a National Hockey League referee, who wears uniform number 13. He was one of the selected referees who officiated the 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and the 2017 Stanley Cup Finals.
Wesley McCauley is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and current National Hockey League (NHL) referee. He is the son of Irene and John McCauley, who was also an NHL referee.
The Hockey Canada Officiating Program is the governing body for on-ice officials for all ice hockey games played under the jurisdiction of Hockey Canada. The Hockey Canada Rulebook provides in-depth explanation and examples of all rules governing hockey in Canada.
The 2012 NHL Winter Classic was an outdoor ice hockey game played in the National Hockey League (NHL) on January 2, 2012, at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The fifth edition of the Winter Classic, it matched the New York Rangers against the Philadelphia Flyers, two Atlantic Division rivals; the Rangers won by a score of 3–2. The original plan was to have the contest at the Philadelphia Eagles' home, Lincoln Financial Field; however, the Eagles played there the day before, and the NHL needed at least a week of preparation time to build the ice rink onto the field. The game was broadcast by NBC in the United States and by CBC and RDS in Canada. NBC's announcers were Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk, with Pierre McGuire handling sideline duties and Bob Costas as the studio host.
Michel Cormier is a National Hockey League linesman, who wears uniform number 76.
The 1991 outdoor National Hockey League (NHL) game in Las Vegas was an exhibition pre-season game between the New York Rangers and the Los Angeles Kings that took place on September 27, 1991, on an outside rink built over the parking lot of the Caesars Palace hotel and casino. This was the first official outdoor NHL game, and was part of the pre-season schedule for the 1991–92 NHL season for both teams.
Daniel John Schachte was an American linesman in the National Hockey League (NHL). He was the first American-born official to oversee 2,000 NHL games.
Mike Cvik is a Canadian former National Hockey League linesman, who wore uniform number #88. At 6 foot, 9 Inches, Cvik was the same height as the NHL's tallest player, Zdeno Chára. He worked more than 1800 NHL games, including his highlights such as the gold medal game at the 2002 Winter Olympics, the NHL All-Star Game and the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
François St-Laurent is a Canadian ice hockey referee, currently working in the National Hockey League. In the summer of 1999, during a camp held by Ron Fournier, he told Réseau des Sports that his goal was to make it to the NHL. Said to have "an exceptional talent", he became a Level VI referee in the Hockey Canada Officiating Program during a seminar in November 2001, held in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Kirsten Welsh is a Canadian ice hockey official, currently serving as a linesman in the American Hockey League (AHL) and Ontario Hockey League (OHL). A retired ice hockey defenceman, she played college ice hockey with the Robert Morris Colonials in the College Hockey America (CHA) conference of the NCAA Division 1 during 2015 to 2019.
Kendall Hanley is an American ice hockey official, currently serving as a linesman in the American Hockey League (AHL). She was the recipient of USA Hockey’s 2020–21 Ben Allison Award in recognition of her dedication on the ice and representation of USA Hockey in the finest manner, as voted by the 150 members of the USA Hockey Officiating Development Program. Hanley has officiated international tournaments hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and USA Hockey, and for the National Hockey League (NHL), the Premier Hockey Federation, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA), and a number of other leagues in North America.