Photo provided by Andy Devlin / Edmonton Oilers Hockey Club
We met up with Dan O’Rourke on a recent one-game assignment in Edmonton. He was in town for an Oilers-Devils game, and like most NHL officials, his daily regiment before the game included meeting or sharing meals with his game partners, working out, and getting ready for the game that night. NHL officials typically work 73 regular season games in a season. Add the pre-season (they usually work five to seven exhibition games) and the playoffs, and it’s a long season, especially with the travel involved. Dan O’Rourke first started officiating as a linesman in the NHL in 1999 after working in the East Coast Hockey League for three seasons. After one year of “doing the lines,” O’Rourke decided he wanted to be a referee, so he honed his skills in the American Hockey League for three seasons. He made the big jump to the NHL in 2004, where he has remained since. O’Rourke’s hockey beginnings are similar to the road taken by a lot of NHL officials. He played hockey at an early age (on skates at three or four years old), and he started officiating hockey games when he was a young minor hockey player. O’Rourke was born in Calgary, but he grew up in the Penticton/Summerland area, moving there when he was halfway through grade one. When I asked O’Rourke about his playing career, I remarked that he spent a lot of time in the penalty box before becoming a hockey official.
“I was never a dirty player, but I was always a team player. I always took care of my teammates.”
“I practiced,” he laughingly commented, adding, “I was never a dirty player, but I was always a team player. I always took care of my teammates. I fought plenty enough, but it was rarely out of anger. It was mostly out of principle. If you picked on my teammates, you had to answer to someone.” Well, he was definitely no stranger to the penalty box. In his first pro year (ECHL), O’Rourke tallied 296 minutes in the penalty box. He played four to five years in the minor pros, until good fortune arrived, but it wasn’t a call up to the NHL. It was a call from former NHL referee Andy Van Hellemond asking him if he wanted to be a hockey official. “When I started in the East Coast League as a linesman, it had been a long time since I officiated. Andy Van Hellemond was the boss of the East Coast League at the time, and he worked me with just about everybody there. My comment to everyone at the time was ‘I’m new at this (level), so if I do something goofy or crappy out there, please tell me, and if you have any comments or tips, pass them along. I’m not going to be put off.’ So I took a lot of things in from everyone and tried to figure out what would work for me.” When asked if his playing career helps him understand tempers in the game, O’Rourke was quick to respond. “You see it coming, you really do. You go, ‘If that happened to my teammate, here’s how I would have reacted.’ One of the things that helps me is that I can see it coming, and I can relate to the players because I’ve been there (before). I’ve been chopped, hacked, whacked, and I’ve possibly done it to someone else.” I asked O’Rourke about fighting in the game, and he paused before answering. “That’s an interesting question. I did it. I don’t recall other than one time where I had to miss a game because of a fight.” O’Rourke continues, “It did police the game. Do I want my son doing it? Probably not. But I also understand if he’s going to play this game, the way it’s set up now, he’s going to have to learn how to do it. I think one of the best byproducts of the game today is that we got rid of the guy that just sits at the end of the bench. We got rid of that
Hockey Edmonton Magazine
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