Shocking revelations from Kerry Fraser's new book

We need someone to crush DGB's teenage
dreams, raise your hand if you volunteer.

Despite his officiating career ending in April, former NHL referee Kerry Fraser has been back in the public eye lately. Fraser has been making the publicity rounds for his new book The Final Call, which details his 30 years as an official.

As the league's all-time leader in games worked, Fraser has a treasure trove of stories and insights to share with fans. And while some fans still insist on focusing on a small handful of controversial moments in his career, the book goes well beyond those few isolated incidents. Fraser pulls no punches in describing the life of an official both on and off the ice, including several details that have never been discussed publicly.

While my advanced copy of the book has mysteriously failed to arrive yet, various sources within the publishing industry have confirmed several explosive revelations.

• Apparently there was some sort of controversial call involving the Leafs and Kings a few years back, and it's sort of surprising that nobody ever brings that up anymore.
  
  
• Despite the paranoid fantasies of your childhood Fraser did not actually "hate" your favourite team or player, but instead hated you, personally.
  
  
• All NHL referees dread running into commissioner Gary Bettman, since they inevitably end up having to spend an hour explaining why they don't call travelling more often.
  
  
• According to an emotional passage on the first page, the entire book is dedicated to Bill McCreary's moustache.
  
  
• Contrary to popular belief, the phrase "Screw the Vancouver Canucks" does not appear anywhere within main body of the NHL rule book, and only three times in the appendix.
  
  
• In one of those quirky sports coincidences, every one of the 2,165 games Fraser ever officiated ended in a tie.
  
  
• Whenever you call in for a video review they always tell you that they're "experiencing unusually high call volumes", as if you don't know that they're just too cheap to hire more customer service reps.
  
  
• He owns a share of the all-time record for "most all-star game penalties called", with zero.
  
  
• He was steered into refereeing by a high school guidance counsellor who thought he might enjoy having every single decision he made for the rest of his life second-guessed by angry drunk people.
  
  
• The book contains 50 full color photographs, 47 of which are shots of small children in Maple Leaf jerseys crying.
  
  
• Prior to working the Nagano Olympics in 1998, he jokingly told Team Canada coach Marc Crawford that international rules barred players with jersey numbers higher than 90 from taking part in the shootout.
  
  
• During the 1986 playoffs, he once gave Al Secord a game misconduct penalty for humming "We Built This City" during the pregame warmup.
  
  
• When he called the infamous illegal stick penalty on Marty McSorley in the 1993 Cup finals, the Kings' enforcer told him "Wow, this is the worst thing that's ever happened to me that didn't involve Wendel Clark's fist turning my orbital bone into a pulpy shard-filled paste".
  
  
• Up until 1982, the entire NHL rulebook was written on the back of a matchbook from a pub in Raymore, Saskatchewan.
  
  
• He could never understand why fans in all 30 NHL cities always chanted “Bruuuuce” at him from the moment he stepped on the ice every night, because duh, his name isn’t Bruce.
  
  
• During instant replay reviews in the Toronto war room, NHL vice-president of hockey operations Mike Murphy refuses to rule on any disputed goal until he's been able to recreate it exactly using the bubble hockey game he keeps in his office.
  
  
• The book's foreword by Wayne Gretzky contains a bunch of really obvious typos and grammatical errors, but somehow Fraser failed to see them.

From The Archives: The DGB Leafs/Kings game six liveblog

Spoiler alert: This guy plays a role

"From the Archives" is a new feature that will examine famous moments in hockey history by revisiting the original DGB blog content that covered them. Today's post is from May, 1993.

Wait, what? A blog archive from almost 20 years ago? That's right. A lot of you kids don't know this, but sports blogging has been around for a long time.

Well before the internet even existed, diehard sports fans like me were posting our thoughts for the world -- it was just done a little bit differently than today. For example, back in the day we "blogged" by writing in longhand in pen in a spiral notebook. If you wanted to add a photo, you cut one out of a magazine. When you were done, you "posted" your content by taping it to your front window. If other people liked your work, they would link to it by drawing an arrow pointing to your house and taping it to their own window.

Not many people noticed what you wrote, but occasionally somebody would wander by and read a few words. Then they'd usually roll their eyes, ring your doorbell, wait for you to open the door, and then drag you into the street to beat you up. So in that sense, not much has really changed.

So anyway, let's dive into the DGB archives. Today we'll travel back exactly seventeen years ago - May 27, 1993. The Toronto Maple Leafs are in Los Angeles, playing the Kings in Game Six of the Western Conference final. The Leafs hold a 3-2 series lead and are one win away from meeting the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup finals. And a young DGB was liveblogging every moment.

We'll pick up the action late in the third period, with the Leafs trailing 4-3.

1:38 a.m. - Wow, is it ever late. I guess that's what happens when you've got a west coast game that doesn't start until 11:00 in the east. If this game goes to overtime I'm going to be completely exhausted tomorrow. I hope I'm not too sleepy for football practice, given my role as the star quarterback. I'd hate to disappoint my loving and devoted girlfriend, every member of the cheerleading squad.

1:40 a.m. - Hey, still, these late games are way better than playing in the middle of the afternoon, am I right? Man. I don't know why NBA fans put up with that.

1:42 a.m. - OK, back to the game. The Kings are still holding on to their one-goal lead. The Leafs look exhausted, which I suppose is to be expected. After winning two consecutive seven-game series, they're now playing their 20th game in 39 nights. It's a stretch of games that's literally unprecedented in NHL history, and you have to figure they're running on fumes.

It would have been nice for them to get some rest during this run, but then again what's the league supposed to do -- take a week off in the middle of the playoffs for no reason? Good luck sustaining any interest if you did that.

1:45 a.m. - Leafs still trailing. I know I shouldn't look ahead, but I can't help but think we'd have a great chance against the Habs in the finals. Don't get me wrong, the Habs are a great team and will no doubt be making regular appearances in the conference finals for years to come. But they've also been on an incredible streak of good luck -- they've won an amazing seven straight OT games this post-season. Seven! There's simply no way that can continue in the next round.

I guess what I'm saying is I don't see the Habs beating either of these teams in the finals unless something completely miraculous happens.

1:46 a.m. - Hey, totally off-topic, but have you noticed how Marty McSorley never seems to get any air under his shots? I have a friend who works on the Kings' equipment staff, I'm going to call him up after this series and suggest Marty start using a bigger curve on his stick.

1:48 a.m. - Two minutes left. It's now or never for the Leafs. If they're going to make history tonight, somebody has to step up right now.

1:49 a.m. - Felix Potvin stops a Kings 3-on-2 with 90 seconds left. He quickly plays it up to Gilmour, then heads for the bench. The Leafs are pressing as Wendel Clark hits the ice as the sixth attacker. Dougie finds him with a seeing eye pass... and Wendel is all alone at the top of the circle!

1:49 a.m. - Clark winds...

1:49 a.m. - Clark shoots...

(Editor's note: The notebook's next few pages are stuck together. Skipping ahead a bit.)

1:53 a.m. - (Extinguishes cigarette.)

1:55 a.m. - Wendel Clark is simply unstoppable tonight. That was his third goal, and they've all been beauties. This might be the greatest game of his career. Hell, it might be the greatest game of any Leaf's career, ever. He's single-handedly willing the Leafs into the finals, and there's not a damn thing the Kings can do about it.

Mark my words: the Leafs are winning this game in overtime on their first even-strength shift.

1:57 a.m. - Holy crap... Glenn Anderson just drove Rob Blake headfirst into the end boards in the dying seconds of regulation. He got two minutes for boarding, and the Kings will start OT on the powerplay.

Now look, some Leaf fans are going to complain about a penalty being handed out this late in a crucial game. But I'm going to defend the referee, whoever that is tonight. What Anderson did is a penalty. Period. It's right there in the rulebook. And you have to call it, even if it's an important game. Nay, you have to call it because it's an important game. The rules are the rules, and you can't ignore them just because you have to make an unpopular call.

1:58 a.m. - Turns out the referee tonight is Kerry Fraser, by the way. Just making a note of it for the sake of completeness, I'm sure it won't end up being important.

2:00 a.m. - And we're into the intermission.

2:10 a.m. - Ugh. CBC is killing time before OT by showing us a bunch of Habs propaganda. They're doing features on some of their all-time greats. It's pretty standard stuff, although I did learn one thing: Did you know that former Habs tough guy John Ferguson has a son who was dropped down a flight of stairs as a baby, fifteen different times? Inspiring story. I wish them all the best.

2:12 a.m. - So nervous... We're one goal away from a trip the Stanley Cup finals. We just need to kill this penalty.

2:15 a.m. - And we're back. Here goes nothing.

2:17 a.m. - My god. Wayne Gretzky just high-sticked Doug Gilmour right in the face! Dougie is bleeding all over the ice. I don't have to tell you what that means: It's going to be five minutes and a game, since that's what the rulebook says and is how it's been called every single other time it's happened all year.

2:18 a.m. - I mean, I really can't overstate how incredible this turn of events is. Wayne Gretzky is going to get kicked out of this game. They'll play four-on-four for a few more seconds, and then the Leafs will have an extended powerplay.

2:18 a.m. - Look, not to get ahead of myself here, but good God almighty, the Leafs are going to score on this powerplay. There's no doubt in my mind. Wendel is unstoppable tonight. He's going to score, the Leafs are going to win the game, and then they're going to play the Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup. I am literally seconds away from experiencing what will no doubt stand as the greatest moment of my young life.

2:19 a.m. - Hm, it's taking a lot longer than usual to call this penalty.

2:19 a.m. - One more thought while they clear up whatever minor procedural matter is causing this delay. This highsticking major on Wayne Gretzky, the announcement of which is no doubt a mere formality, is going to go down as one of the most stunning calls in NHL history. It will be discussed for decades. And Kerry Fraser is going to be the one to make it.

Imagine how he feels right now. With 20,000 fans in the building and millions more watching on TV, he's been handed a chance to make one of the toughest calls in league history. This is the moment that every official in every sport dreams of. This exact moment is why you ever pick up that whistle in the first place.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: For the rest of hockey history, whenever you hear the phrase "Cowardly referee who stares down the biggest call of his career and chokes on his whistle and then lies about it", you will immediately think: "The exact opposite of Kerry Fraser".

2:20 a.m. - Um, why is Wayne Gretzky taking the faceoff?

2:20 a.m. - WHY IS WAYNE GRETZKY TAKING THE FACEOFF???

2:20 a.m. - Oh god, he didn't call it. He didn't call it he didn't call it he didn't call it he didn't call it...

(Editor's note: That goes on for several dozen pages. I'm just going to skip ahead.)

2:22 a.m. - Hockey gods? Can we talk?

Look, I understand what's happening here. Kerry Fraser just refused to call an obvious penalty that could have helped send the Leafs to an historic showdown with the Canadiens for the Stanley Cup. I see what you're doing, and I know where this is going. I know the Leafs are going to lose this game now. Every Leaf fan knows it. In fact, there's really no reason to string us along. You might as well just have the goal happen right now.

But first, just one request: Have it be somebody other than Gretzky who scores, OK? Anyone but the guy who's still got Dougie's blood on his stick. That's not to much to ask, is it?

I'm so young and full of hope right now. My whole life as a hockey fan is spread out before me. So much optimism. So much possibility. And I can't help but feel like this could be a turning point, hockey gods. If you let Gretzky score right here, I'm going to have to go ahead and assume that you hate Leaf fans and want us to suffer forever. And I don't know if I could handle that.

But I do know this: I really don't want to turn into some bitter, burnt out Leaf fan who rants about things that happened a generation ago in a way that starts off funny but gradually just makes everyone around him uncomfortable. Don't let that happen to me, hockey gods. Please.

Just not Gretzky. Anyone but Gretzky.

2:23 a.m. - Of course.

2:24 a.m. - I will not cry. You will not get that satisfaction, hockey gods. Not tonight.

(Editor's note: The next few entries are hard to read. I must have spilled a glass of water on them or something.)

2:32 a.m. - You know what? This isn't the end of this series. Sure, it's a terrible way to lose. Sure, it will probably cost Kerry Fraser his career because even the zero-accountability NHL wouldn't try to defend this level of incompetence and will no doubt fire him first thing tomorrow morning.

But I'm not going to let this get me down. After all, I still have a lot going for me. The Blue Jays continue to dominate against smaller markets like Boston. Letterman's new show will debut soon and wipe Leno off the air for good. And Chinese Democracy should be out by the end of the year.

And most important of all: There's still game seven, Saturday night at the Gardens. The Leafs still have a shot. They may win. They may lose. But they still have a shot.

And I'll tell you this much: Wayne Gretzky just used up a lifetime worth of luck tonight. If he's going to be a factor in game seven, he better be ready to play the best game of his career. Because if there's any justice left in the world, his days of lucky fluke goals are over.

Leafs in seven, baby. They're winning this series, and then they're beating the Habs. The dynasty begins now. The Maple Leafs are winning the Stanley Cup.

Because, man... god help me if they don't.

After 16 years, a new wrinkle on Kerry Fraser's missed call

Kerry Fraser has just wrapped up his hour-long appearance on Leafs Lunch. And while his explanation of his infamous missed call on Wayne Gretzky hasn't changed, he did introduce a new wrinkle involving Doug Gilmour.

The interview, which was heavily hyped as some sort of epic confrontation between Fraser and Leaf fans, was an enormous dud. While 640 did get in a few shoutouts to PPP (and borrowed heavily from my Youtube clips of Brian Lewis and Don Cherry's reactions), host Brian Duff was more interested in giggling along with Fraser at cutting edge hair jokes.

But we did get at least one new tidbit when, for the first time that I'm aware of, Fraser told us what Doug Gilmour said to him immediately after the high-stick. According to Fraser, Gilmour told him that he was hit on Gretzky's follow through (which wouldn't be a penalty).

Duff immediately hammered Fraser with a devastating follow up: "Why would it matter what a player told you? Isn't it your job to see the play and call it correctly?"

No, just kidding. Duff accepted the explanation without question and moved on to the next call from a Habs fan.

Beyond that, Fraser is sticking to his claim that he didn't see the play. He repeatedly mentioned that the game looks different on the ice than it does from "up above", in an apparent attempt to explain how his version is contradicted by multiple replays.

At one point, he even told Duff that "you'll see that there was an obstructed view off the faceoff, and two big players were in my line of sight" -- a bizarre claim, considering the play didn't happen off of a faceoff. Apparently, being "on the ice" also warps space-time.

As a reminder, here's Fraser's "obstructed view" with "two big players in (his) line of sight":



"I'm honest," Fraser said. "I tell the truth." You be the judge.

You'll be able to find a podcast of the interview later today on the 640 web site.

The NHL's official explanation of Kerry Fraser's blown call

As a fitting end to Kerry Fraser Day, and with a glove tap to 1967ers over at PPP for reminding me about this interview... here's NHL Director of Officiating Bryan Lewis explaining how Fraser and crew missed the call. This interview aired on HNIC during the second intermission of game seven.

I'll let the interview stand without comment, except to point out that Lewis' version (that Fraser and his linesmen thought Gilmour may have been hit with the puck) doesn't match Fraser's own explanation from years later (that he hadn't seen the play at all because he was blocked out).

And a bonus clip, just in case you were wondering how the notoriously neutral Don Cherry felt about all this ...

Happy Kerry Fraser Day!

Sixteen years ago tonight, this happened:

Yes, the infamous Wayne Gretzky high-stick. Or, more specifically, the infamous Kerry Fraser non-call.

I've written about that fateful game six before; how Wendel Clark played the greatest game of his career, how he almost managed to carry the Leafs into the Cup final on his back, and how Fraser's gutless copout took it away from him. I won't go over all of that again in detail here, mainly because that's what the restraining order says.

So let's just stick to the facts: Gretzky high-sticks Gilmour, the rulebook says it's an automatic five and a game, Fraser and his linesmen huddle up and then decide that nobody saw anything, and Gretzky scores the OT winner seconds later.

Years later, Fraser finally came clean to the Toronto Sun and admitted that he blew the call. Sort of.

"I was blocked out on the play," Fraser said. "The replays show that."

In reality, of course, the replay clearly shows the exact opposite. At the moment that Gretzky's stick clips Gilmour (0:05 of the video above), Fraser has an absolutely clear view of the play, and is looking directly at it.

He wasn't blocked out. He didn't miss it. He saw it, but he didn't have the guts to call it.

Let's be clear: Bad calls happen. Missed calls happen. They're part of sports. And there was no conspiracy here, no secret plot to get a big market US team into the finals and avoid an all-Canadian matchup.

No, this was just one official, staring down the biggest call of his career, and finding himself without the courage to make it.

And of course, this being the NHL, Fraser was never held accountable. He even got the Finals assignment that year. After all, who better to work the biggest games of the year than somebody who'd just finished choking on their whistle?

(Update: Go here to see the NHL's official response to the blown call.)

And the media, for the most part, forgot all about it. Oh sure, they bring it up every now and then -- complete with a shake of their head and a finger-wagging for those silly Leaf fans, always living in the past.

Next year will be the final one of Kerry Fraser's career. As the season winds down, count on reading plenty of feel-good fluff pieces about Fraser's fine body of work, and how much he'll be missed.

Don't believe a word of it. He's a coward and liar, and no Leaf fan should forget or forgive.

Until then, feel free to print this and hang it on your wall today.

Leafs at Kings: Never forget

In honor of tonight's game, here's an oldie-but-goodie for most of you, and maybe something new for those of you who came aboard last month.

Click for full-sized

So help me, if MLSE tries to give him a retirement ceremony like they gave Dan Marouelli for his 1,500th game, there's a good chance you'll see my picture on the front page of the newspaper the next day.

Wendel Moment #2 - Game Six

On November 22, Wendel Clark's #17 will be raised to the rafters as the team honours its former captain and arguably the most popular player in franchise history.

In the lead up to that night, Down Goes Brown will feature a countdown of Wendel's Top 17 Greatest Moments.

On May 27, 1993, the Leafs faced off with the Kings in game six of their conference final. The Leafs lead the series 3-2, and were a win away from meeting the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup final. It would turn out to be the most memorable game of a generation for Leaf fans.

With the score tied 1-1 after one period, the Leafs took the lead in the second when Wendel Clark drove to the Kings net on a solo rush and slipped a backhand past Kelly Hrudey. But the Kings stormed back, scoring three times and taking a 4-2 lead into the second intermission. Playing their 20th game in 39 nights, the Leafs were flat. The tank was empty.

The Kings had the lead, the home crowd, and all the momentum. The Leafs had a captain who wasn't done yet.

Midway into the third Clark brought the Leafs to within one on another solo effort, this time storming into the Kings zone and using Marty McSorley as a screen to beat Kelly Hrudey on a long wrist shot. That set the stage for the final minutes, with both teams trading scoring chances. With 90 seconds to play, Leafs goalie Felix Potvin headed to the bench.

Clark, the sixth attacker, stepped onto the ice and crossed the Kings blue line. Doug Gilmour spotted him and, realizing the Kings hadn't picked up Clark coming off the bench, delivered a long tape-to-tape pass. Wendel was still well out, at least 35 feet, but he had time to get off a clean shot.

Here's the thing about those next few moments: There wasn't a single Leaf fan anywhere who had any doubt about what was about to happen.

It was a strange feeling. Leaf fans live for doubt. It's all we know. Deep down, under all the bravado and chest-thumping, we're a miserable and pessimistic bunch. We've been kicked by the hockey gods so many times that we've learned to always expect the worst. We know that if something bad can happen, it will. And then it will get worse. It always does.

Not this time. As soon as Clark wound up, we knew where the puck was going.

Wrist shot. Top shelf. Tie game.

Clark had recorded a playoff hat trick, virtually on his own. There were no goal mouth tap-ins, no accidental deflections, no easy rebounds to shovel home. Just three individual efforts, each one buried with more authority than the last. Wendel Clark had single-handedly dragged the Leafs to within one goal of a trip to the finals.

Everyone knows what happened next.

Glenn Anderson. Kerry Fraser. Wayne Gretzky. The end.

One of the (many) things that fans of other teams don't understand about Leaf fans is why we're still so angry about the Fraser non-call. After all, who's to say the Leafs would have scored on the powerplay? Who's to say the Kings wouldn't have won anyways? Bad calls happen, it's been 15 years, just let it go.

This is why we're still angry. This is why we know that non-call cost us a spot in the Finals. Because anyone who watched that game knows, without question, that Wendel Clark was going to score the winner. The Kings couldn't stop him that night. Nobody could have.

Forget the powerplay. The Leafs just needed one more even-stregth shift. And they didn't get it, because when it came time to make the biggest call of his career, Kerry Fraser choked on his whistle.

After a career of false starts and bad backs and bad luck and terrible teams and blood and bruises, after all the hours on the trainer's table, after all the fights with guys twice his size, Wendel Clark finally had a chance to play for the Stanley Cup, and he responded with arguably the greatest game ever played by a Maple Leaf.

This was his moment. This was what everything had been building towards. And Kerry Fraser took it away.

So yeah, we're still a little cranky about that.

But we'll move on. The Leafs lost game seven despite two more goals from Clark (including the Blues and Sharks series, Clark scored a pair of goals in three straight game sevens). They made one more run to the conference finals the next year, lost to the Canucks, and then dealt Clark to the Nordiques.

They never got as close to the Cup again. Some days we wonder if they ever will.

But the one time they did, their captain put a tired team on his back and almost won the game on his own. It was the most memorable highlight of a long career.

Except for one...