Hockey: Behind the Scenes

Steve Webb, the New York Islanders right winger, blindsides Mats Sundin of the Toronto Maple Leafs against the boards as the Leafs superstar heads innocently towards the bench. Mayhem erupts, and an on-ice pile-up ensues, with Webb on the bottom, between members of both teams. The officials, led by Dave Jackson, quickly prevent a bench-clearing brawl. Two minutes later, as Webb exits the penalty box and skates towards the Islanders’ bench, he is met on-ice by Leafs’ bruiser Tie Domi, who is clearly disturbed with Webb’s lack of respect for Sundin. Domi tries to prevent Webb from reaching the Islanders bench, but when Webb gets there anyway, Domi grabs his sweater and tries to pull him back onto the ice. Again, Dave Jackson is haste to act as he swiftly pulls Domi away from the horde of Islanders.

Such is the life of one of the National Hockey League most experienced on-ice officials. Over fourteen years of professional refereeing, the past seven at the major league level, Dave Jackson has established himself as one of the premier referees in a league once renowned for its violence and insurgent nature.

"I love my job. I love what I do," Jackson beams. "Gary Bettman has made hockey one of the best products out there." Jackson, a Montreal native, has seen the face of the sport that consumes him undergo the most dramatic changes of its history both on and off the ice. Over the past few years in particular, there have been many radical changes in the job requirements of an NHL official. Last year the league initiated a "two referee system," in which two refs patrol the ice as opposed to the traditional single referee. But this transition is not yet complete. While this year only sixty percent of games are officiated by a referee tandem, next year the league plans on introducing the new system as the standard policy for officiating all matches.

But Jackson looks forward to working under the new system. "It would have been done much sooner but the league just doesn’t have enough guys available." However, whether he has another partner or not, Jackson feels that the on-ice relationship between players and officials is a fixed one. "The respect factor is very high," Jackson insists.

On this night, however, with the Islanders and Maple Leafs at war, all the respect in the world won’t keep these players in line. Jackson hits Domi with a two-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for his altercation with Webb, and no sooner has Domi left the box than he is called for another minor. The Leafs current penalty leader (99 minutes coming into the game, more than double anyone else on his team) would wind up spending six minutes in the box.

Jackson, then, has to alter his respect theory a little. "The players all have my respect until they lose it. The league tells us to be careful with what we say to the players, so when a player mouths off, I either give him a penalty, or I just tell him that he can’t talk to me for the rest of the game."

The players, however, are not always receptive to the fact that they can no longer bring issues to Dave’s attention. "They’ll come up to me and say, ‘I have an A on my sweater, I have to talk to the referee.’ And I’ll tell them, ‘Talking to the referee is a privilege, not a right.’"

During a TV timeout, Jackson goes over to the penalty box and gives Domi some friendly advice. "I told him that he just had to play smarter. His team was in a close situation and they needed him on the ice. A player can never take matters into his own hand. I let him know that he was really hurting his team by taking these kinds of penalties."

Jackson, a Montreal native, spent seven years in the minors before making the jump to The Show. Coming from Montreal, where hockey and life are synonymous, Dave spent his childhood idolizing ‘Les Canadiens’, playing street hockey on the icy roads of Pointe-Claire, a pleasant suburb nestled near Montreal’s cosmopolitan airport. But all the time spent on the road in the minors, living in dingy motel quarters side by side with the players - of whom many are now playing in the NHL – wiped out any nepotism toward his former favorite team, or biases he may have had against certain other clubs. Jackson believes that "at this point in my career every team is equal."

Refereeing wasn’t always in Jackson’s life plans. Like all other Canadian children, Jackson dreamed of NHL stardom. It was not in the cards however, and Jackson turned to officiating; a way to get as close as possible to the game. When he first started out in the pinstripes Dave served as both a linesman and a referee. But, Jackson eventually turned to full-time refereeing after being "told by a supervisor, in no uncertain terms, that I was a terrible linesman."

Jackson’s tight control of the game is apparent. Just seven minutes and forty-one seconds into the game, it looked like these two teams would be in for a long night of dirty hitting and nasty scuffling. But as the final horn sounds, the game turns out to be one of the more tranquil. Steve Webb even manages to escape alive and unharmed, despite the contrary seeming like a foregone conclusion after his dirty after-the-change hit.

The referee’s life on the road is a challenging and exciting one, but Dave Jackson is a tough zebra; unfazed by the hazards that would drive a lesser man to pursue a less demanding line of work. Besides, Jackson, believes, "that’s why we have summer!"