Who is the Best NHL Referee?

What the players said.

In a 2011 option survey, 15% of players picked a referee named “None” as the best. This could be taken as the glass half full or the glass half empty. Do the players all think that the level of NHL officiating is so consistent that there is little to choose between all referees when attempting to select a best ref? Or was this a slight on the zebras with players sending, in their opinions, the message that the whole crew of them sux?

Of the referees that were named, Kelly Sutherland received the most favourable ranking with the approval rating from 13% of the players responding to the survey. The runners up were Bill McCreary (10%), Wes McCauley (9%) and a tie Tim Peel and Paul Devorski (7%).

Ciao,

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Tags: hockey; Vancouver+Canucks; NHL;

Former NHL Referee Lloyd Gilmour

I recently learnt with a measure of sadness of the passing, this past August, of former NHL Referee Lloyd Gilmour. Mr. Gilmour has a permanent place in both, the British Columbia Hockey Hall of Fame and the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame. Below is the tribute as it appears on BC Hockey Hall of Fame:

"Referee Lloyd Gilmour saw a lot of changes during his almost two decades as an NHL official, in fact he played a direct role in a few of those changes. Born in Vancouver in 1928, Gilmour first dreamed about making it to the NHL as a player. His decision to become a referee came about by accident, literally. He was injured in a logging accident in the early 1950s, when he was a 19-year-old player in the New York Rangers' organization. Those injuries prevented him from pursuing a career as a player."

Gilmore started as a referee in the National Hockey League in the early 1960s. At that time the NHL was a six-team league, but growth was right around the corner. During his career Gilmour saw the league expand from the original six to eighteen teams. During his 19-year NHL career, Lloyd Gilmour was instrumental in development of protection for players involved in fights including promoting of the 'third man in' rule.

One of the highlights of Lloyd’s career was the now-infamous 1976 exhibition game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Moscow Red Army team from the Soviet Union. After a hard but clean hit on Moscow star Valeri Kharlamov, with the game still scoreless, the Soviets left the ice for 15 minutes to protest the Gilmour non call. To add insult to the injury, Gilmore in response gave the Red Army a two minute penalty for delay of game. I believe that Lloyd was involved in the discussion, along with NHL President Clarence Campbell and Flyers owner Ed Snider, where the basic message to the Soviets was ‘finish the game or you do not get paid for the series.’ Gilmour's calls stood, the Red Army team returned to the ice, and the Flyers went on score on the power play and win the game 4-1.

At the time of his death Lloyd Gilmore was a resident of Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Ciao,

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Tags: hockey; Vancouver+Canucks; NHL;