When the puck dropped for game four of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ first playoff series in nine years on May 8, Drayton native Scott Cherrey was right in the thick of things.
An NHL linesman since 2007, Cherrey was working the first round of the playoffs for the third consecutive year and drew the assignment for Toronto’s second home game.
Thanks in part to that other famous NHL Cherry, broadcaster Don, there was a little more focus than usual on face-off puck drops, largely handled by the linesmen.
Cherry, in a recent edition of his popular Coaches’ Corner segment of the Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts, had ripped the linesmen working previous games for too frequently, and in his view unnecessarily, ejecting centremen from the faceoff circle.
“Somebody’s got to get these linesmen under control … just drop the puck,” Cherry urged.
Add to that media reports of Maple Leaf players and coach Randy Carlyle complaining the linesmen were allowing Bruin players to “cheat” on faceoffs, and many fans were watching the puck drops with increased scrutiny by the time game four rolled around.
For linesman Cherrey though, it was business as usual.
“The media is going to say what they want. We just try to maintain the professional standards that we’ve set all year and go out and do our job,” he explained.
Cherrey said all teams have the ability to express concerns to an officiating supervisor for each series, but no special instructions were given to officials.
“We’re just told to maintain the same standards that we’ve upheld for the entire season. We don’t change things for the playoffs.” Maintaining those standards has put Cherrey on the prestigious list of playoff officials since 2011.
This year, for the first time, he is part of the second-round officiating team. The number of linesmen drops from 22 to 14 for round two. As of press deadline, he had worked game one of the Chicago/Detroit Series on May 14.
“Just to be named to the playoff team was quite an honor,” Cherrey noted.
Playoff officials are named on a round-by-round basis, so Cherrey didn’t know he would be part of the second round crew on May 8, when he spoke with the Advertiser by telephone en route to Washington for game five of the Capitals’ series with the New York Rangers.
Previously, he worked the lines in the first round for game one of the St. Louis/Los Angeles series and game three between the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders.
Cherrey described the atmosphere as “electric” for what was only the second Leafs home playoff game since 2004.
“The playoffs are sort of the ultimate experience – your speed of play is up – we just have to make sure were ready for it when the puck drops.”
Like the players, Cherrey is glad to be back on the ice in a lockout-shortened season that didn’t begin until Jan. 19.
“It was a real roller coaster ride,” he said of the ups and downs of the negotiations that eventually led to a new collective bargaining agreement between players and owners. “It would look like we were going to play, then it wouldn’t, then it would again.
“Finding a positive in a negative,” Cherrey said the late start to the season gave him more time to spend with his family. He and his wife Christa live in Kitchener. Their third child, son Kaese, was born in August. The couple also have a son Tyson, 9 and a daughter Katelynne, who is 6.
“The positive thing was for me to be able to be around for Tyson’s hockey and Katelynne’s gymnastics and to help out with the baby.”
