from Peter Gobis of the Sun Chronicle,

The odometer on Ryan Daisy’s 2007 Ford clicked over to 200,000 a few weeks ago when he had just crossed the border into Massachusetts, heading home to Mansfield.

Ask Daisy for a roster of restaurants that serve a home-cooked meal or establishments with late-night hours and he can rattle off more than a handful. Twenty-four hour gas stations, cold arenas and screaming fans, the differing styles of play between the USHL, the ECHL and the AHL — Daisy has an answer for them all.

“It’s been a long six years of pounding pavement, a lot of roads, a lot of miles,” said Daisy, who is newly minted as an NHL linesman for the upcoming 2016-17 season.

“It’s every kid’s dream to one day play in the NHL. I knew in my teenage years that dream was not going to come true.”

Now, it is Daisy who is wearing the striped shirt — in the NHL, no less.

The 28-year-old Daisy was one of four officials appointed to assignments at NHL arenas next season. Last season, the NHL saw the retirements of referees Rob Martell, Greg Kimmerly and Dennis LaRue, along with linesmen Mike Cvik, Brad Lazarowich and Andy McElman.

Daisy is a product of the USA Hockey Officiating Development Program.

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