Via SI's Stu Hackel, the London Free Press's Morris Dalla Costa reports that one of the NHL's senior referees, Don Van Massenhoven, is retiring at the end of this season:

On Friday in Detroit Van Massenhoven won’t be nervous. It will be Game 1,366. He’ll likely be a little sad and most likely take a few minutes to reflect on what’s been an outstanding and eventful career.

But like the true professional he is, he’ll forget all that, go out and take care of business as the Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres battle it out on the Joe Louis Arena ice.

When it’s over, Van Massenhoven will put the whistle in his pocket and retire from refereeing.

“It flew by,” Van Massenhoven said of the 23 years. “I don’t know where it went. I remember Bryan Lewis assigning me to my first game and saying ‘You only have 999 left to get to 1,000.’”

Dalla Costa continues, and as you recall, Van Massenhoven suffered a severe facial injury back in 2005, so it's something of a miracle that the man can still walk and talk, never mind referee games...