Schoenfeld Gets Hearing; Officials Return

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. —  The National Hockey League agreed Monday to give New Jersey Devils’ Coach Jim Schoenfeld a hearing before passing judgment on his run-in with referee Don Koharski, and also reached an accord with league officials guaranteeing they work the rest of the playoffs.

The action came one day after one of the most embarrassing moments in NHL history.

The league suspended Schoenfeld for the fourth game of the Wales Conference finals and then was forced to sit back and watch as a New Jersey judge issued a restraining order allowing him to coach. Then, regular NHL officials boycotted the game because of Schoenfeld’s presence, and the league eventually was forced to use amateur officials after the start of the game was delayed 67 minutes.

Monday, the league started the healing process.

First, it rescinded Schoenfeld’s suspension and agreed to hold a hearing today on his confrontation with Koharski after Game 3 of the series.

The NHL later agreed to provide officials with more security at playoff games, prompting a return-to-work promise from officials.

“The association has been assured by the NHL that security at game venues will be improved where necessary,” Jim Beatty, a lawyer for the NHL Officials’ Assn., said in a statement. “The association looks forward to continuing to work with the NHL to protect and enhance the image and integrity of the game of hockey.”

Beatty and referees Dave Newell and Andy van Hellemond represented the officials’ union at the meeting with Jim Gregory, the NHL’s vice president of hockey operation, and John McCauley, the league’s director of officiating.

In a short written statement, the NHL said simply that the league has “agreed with the officials to put (Sunday’s) incident behind them.”

Schoenfeld is hoping to get a similar statement today, adding that he expects to be coaching the team tonight in Game 5 of the best-of-7 series that is tied 2-2.

“If and when everything is taken into consideration, I feel the charges of physical contact will be put to rest because there was none,” Schoenfeld said Monday. “All this was was a heated verbal exchange between a coach and an official.”

Schoenfeld was scheduled to fly with the team to Boston on Monday. But, after the suspension was rescinded, he returned to the Devils’ offices to prepare for the hearing.

At issue will be Schoenfeld’s run-in Friday with Koharski. The Devils’ coach called the official “a fat pig” and allegedly bumped him following a 6-1 loss.

Hours after the NHL announced its suspension, the Devils got a temporary restraining order from Superior Court Judge James F. Madden, clearing the way for Schoenfeld to be behind the bench for the Devils’ 3-1 victory Sunday night.

Just moments before the game, however, Newell, linesmen Gord Broseker and Ray Scapinello, along with alternate referee Denis Morel, refused to work the game, and amateurs Paul McInnis, Vin Godleski and Jim Sullivan--a skating rink operator, a salesman and a retired police officer--replaced them.

The game was almost anticlimactic and lacked a certain amount of intensity with Boston Coach Terry O’Reilly saying he felt as if it wasn’t an NHL game.

Equally embarrassing for the league was the fact that NHL President John Ziegler could not be located.

“I don’t know where Mr. Ziegler was last night,” NHL spokesman Gary Meagher said on Monday. “We expect him in our New York office later today.”

NHL spokeswoman Shannon Shay would not answer questions on Ziegler’s whereabouts late Monday afternoon.

Schoenfeld maintained that his confrontation with Koharski has been blown out of proportion. He said videotapes of the incident show he did not push the referee.

Those videotapes will be shown today, Schoenfeld said.

The coach said the tapes show clearly that at least two people are between him and Koharski when the referee slipped. Koharski claimed that Schoenfeld pushed him with both hands.

The episode began when Schoenfeld believed the referee called a bad game and was annoyed by a penalty that gave Boston a four-minute power play.

NHL Executive Vice President Brian O’Neill said he did not review the videotapes before announcing the suspension of Schoenfeld on Sunday. The Devils said that denied Schoenfeld due process and they went to Madden for the restraining order.

Madden said Monday his order pertained only to Game 4. It was unclear Monday what the Devils would do if the league upheld Schoenfeld’s suspension for tonight’s game.

Larry Brooks, the Devils’ vice president of communications and advertising, said, “We will absolutely reserve all avenues.”

But Brooks would not say if the Devils planned further legal action to keep Schoenfeld behind the bench Tuesday night.

The team, in the meantime, traveled to Boston and the players remained solidly behind their coach.

“It can be a distraction, but the seriousness of the Stanley Cup semifinals make it easy to overcome,” defenseman Jack O’Callahan said. “A lot of people can identify with this team. We just want justice. We just want to be heard.”

Defenseman Bruce Driver said the situation with Schoenfeld has helped rally the team.

“To a point, it has definitely brought this team together, not that we weren’t together before this,” Driver said. “We have grown together a lot. We’re all behind Schoeny.”