Intensity meter gets dialed up in NHL playoffs
Veteran linesman finds no comparison between league and post-season play in the National Hockey Laegue
The pace of a regular-season game in the National Hockey League is nothing like one in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, says Brad Kovachik, a linesman who has worked the blue line at the top level for 22 years
Done for the 2017-18 since the end of Round 2, the Fort Erie resident has officiated in 147 post-season contests in his career.
In this year’s playoffs Kovachik worked games in Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Winnipeg and Colorado.
He also officiated in the first-ever playoff game in Las Vegas, home of Vegas Golden Knights, an expansion team that has turned the hockey world upside down by finishing third in the Western Conference and becoming only the second team to advance to the final in its first year in existence.
The St. Louis Blues went all the way to the Stanley Cup finals as an expansion franchise 50 years ago after the NHL doubled in size to 12 from six teams. Vegas is
“The intensity in a December game compared to the second week of April
is unbelievable, unless you experience
it.”
BRAD KOVACHIK
NHL linesman
the first team to accomplish the feat in the so-called modern era.
Kovachik didn’t get the call for any games in the regular season in Las Vegas but said the atmosphere there for the first game of Round 1 was electric.
“The streets are closed down, there are concerts, it’s pretty amazing that Las Vegas has got behind hockey how it has,” he said.
Kovachik said the speed of the players is one of the most recognizable examples of how the game has grown and changed in his more than two decades as a professional official.
“The players are faster and faster every year,” he said.
This is especially the case come playoff time.
“The intensity in a December game compared to the second week of April is unbelievable, unless you experience it,” he said.
Kovachik was sidelined for about 10 days with a rib injury early this post-season, but it was nothing as serious as what his colleague, Steve Barton, suffered when his leg was clipped by a skate during the firstround series between the Washington Capitals and Columbus Blue Jackets.
“It’s hard to see him go down, and it’s going to be a long road back for him,” said Kovachik, who was knocked out of the playoffs in 2015 when he was hurt in an attempted hit on a New York Rangers player by Tampa Bay Lightning star Steven Stamkos.
Kovachik, who has officiated in 1,445 regular-season games in his career, has also suited up in the 2014 and 2017 Stanley Cup finals, the
2004 World Cup of Hockey, the 2012 NHL All-Star Game, as well as the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
The Woodstock native is currently living in Fort Erie with his family.