If you are a not big ice hockey fan you have probably noticed that on the ice during a game you have the two teams of six players plus a “third” team in zebra stripes. These zebras are the two referees and the two linesmen who are on the ice to officiate and to keep the match under control.
The match officials start their day off with a meeting at 9.30 every game day with their supervisor. At these meetings the referee supervisor covers what the refs and linesmen have to pay attention to in the up coming matches for that day. They also review the games from the previous day and go over where to draw the line on a particular penalty. Linesman Attila Nagy said “these meetings are so that we are always on the same page”.
The match officials will have lunch together expect for the crew that is officiating the 12.30 match, those guys eat after their game.
About 45 minutes before the puck drop the match officials start to get ready for the game, they do a similar routine as what the ice hockey player will go through, stretching, pre game skate, and kick a soccer ball around. Before the match the four man zebra team will also exchange notes on what to look out for and let the rest of the team know about their own experience they might have had from a previous game with either teams or coaches.
In between periods just like a hockey team they talk about what they might have to differently and what went exactly as planned. After the match the game officials will meet with the supervisor who will give them his opinion on how things went during the game.
“We don’t find out what games we are doing and with whom until the night before or the morning of the game” said Nagy when asked about scheduling. “We obviously also will not officiate a match for our home country either”.
In a net shell this is the life of the referees and the linesmen during the Division 1 A World Championships in Budapest Hungary.