An FAA ground stop created chaos for college football, NBA, and NFL officials this past weekend, forcing reassignments and disrupting travel plans across the country. But for the NHL’s 13 North America-based games on Saturday, officials thankfully made it to their destinations without a hitch. If they hadn’t, though, the league had a nearly 100-year-old rule ready to deploy, one that would have seen actual NHL players strapping on the zebra stripes and calling the game.
That Nearly Century-Old Rule Is Wild
So what’s the deal if an official can’t make it to the arena, or has to leave a game due to injury, illness, accident, or even “misadventure”? The NHL’s Rule 31.11 outlines the protocol. First, they try to find a spare official if one’s available, or the game just keeps going with one fewer official. If that fails, the league says it’ll “make every attempt to find suitable replacement officials.” But here’s where it gets absolutely bonkers: if *those* attempts fail, Rule 31.11 states that each team would pick one player to serve as a referee or linesperson for the game. The home team’s choice becomes the ref, and the visiting team’s guy gets to be a linesperson. Can you even imagine that? Your favorite enforcer tossing someone from the game!
When Players ACTUALLY Became Refs
This isn’t just some dusty old rule in a forgotten binder, either. It’s actually happened! Back on January 15, 1983, a snowstorm delayed referee Ron Fournier and linesman Dan Marouelli for a game between the Hartford Whalers and New Jersey Devils at the Hartford Civic Center. While everyone waited for the real refs to show, the teams had to get creative. Whalers defenseman Mickey Volcan, who was already out with a hand injury, and Devils forward Garry Howatt were chosen to work as linesmen. They got into sweats and black practice jerseys, had linesman Ron Foyt (who’d flown in the night before and was working as the interim referee) brief them, and actually worked the game until Fournier was ready in the second period. The Whalers even ended up winning that game 2-1. Talk about stepping up when needed!
Could It REALLY Happen Today?
While it’s a wild story, Stephen Walkom, the NHL’s executive vice president of officiating and a former ref himself, told The Athletic recently that he can’t picture a scenario where the league would actually use players as officials now, even with Rule 31.11 still on the books. Walkom stressed that they never want to put players in jeopardy or put unqualified officials on the ice. He said, “Obviously we can assign who we think was capable of doing the game, but we never want to put our players in jeopardy and not put officials on the ice that we don’t think are competent and qualified to work the hockey game.” He acknowledged it’s a “rare thing,” but even in the past, he noted there must have been times “through misadventure, weather, sickness, something, you must have had a time where GMs didn’t agree on who to put on the ice because of offi.” (The quote cuts off there in the source.) It really makes you think, doesn’t it?
So, while the NHL dodged a travel bullet this weekend, this ancient rule is a reminder of how quickly things can go sideways. We’ve all seen crazy weather hit, right? Hopefully, league protocols and modern logistics keep our actual officials where they need to be, because while the story from ’83 is legendary, we definitely want the pros calling the shots when the puck drops. We want to see the best of hockey, not the most chaotic.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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