from Paul Stewart at The Huffington Post,

Tonight is opening night of the NHL regular season. For some guys, it will be the long-awaited night they make their NHL debut. That wasn't the case for me. My personal "opening night" as an NHL player came on Thanksgiving of 1979. I made my NHL refereeing debut on March 27, 1986.

Every player, coach and referee who has ever appeared in the NHL has his own story to tell about his first game in the League. The tale of my first game reffing in the NHL is an unconventional one. That's par for the course with me. For whatever reason, nothing major in my life ever seems to happen the "normal" way.

Both my NHL playing and refereeing debuts were made in my hometown of Boston. That was a special kind of thrill.

After my playing days ended, I enrolled in Bruce Hood's referee training school in 1983. I worked my way up the ladder over over the next three years. The first NHL game I worked was in my hometown of Boston, but it wasn't a game I was assigned beforehand to referee.

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