from Slava Malamud of IIHF.com,

The first Russian (and only the second European) referee in the history of the NHL has gotten off to a great start and hopes more are coming in his wake.

This might not be quite the same kind of milestone as the one in the late 1980s, when the Iron Curtain broke in international hockey and Soviet players were first allowed to go over to the National Hockey League. That one was a milestone to end all milestones. But it was mainly a political breakthrough, as nobody in the 1980s had any doubt at the stars from the Big Red Machine could, given a chance, acquit themselves pretty well in the world’s best league.

This milestone, however, is of a different kind. One could argue that the barrier the Russian official Yevgeni Romasko is breaking, in a way, may be a harder one than the old Curtain. While the NHL has had a solid three decades’ worth of success by European players, Old World officials have found it so much more difficult to get the proverbial foot in the door. In fact, Romasko is only the second European referee in the league’s history and, of course, the first Russian, having begun his NHL career earlier this month at a game in Detroit between the Red Wings and the Edmonton Oilers. One can rest assured that the momentous nature of this occasion wasn’t lost on anyone, Romasko included.

“I was nervous to the extreme,” said the 33-year-old native of Tver, Russia. “It was a very important day in my life and in the history of Russian hockey. But the emotions were mostly positive ones, because the NHL created a celebratory atmosphere around it. The NHL officials, the teams, the players met me warmly, congratulated me. I have never experienced anything like this in my career.”

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