Leon Evan Stickle (born April 20, 1948) is a Canadian former
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
linesman. His officiating career started in 1969 and ended in 1998.
Early life
Stickle is the son of Ivan Stickle and his wife Bernice, and has a sister Gail. Born in Toronto in 1948, Stickle and his sister and parents moved to
Milton, Ontario
Milton (Canada 2016 Census, 2016 census population 110,128) is a town in Southern Ontario, Canada, and part of the Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton Region in the Greater Toronto Area. Between 2001 and 2011, Milton was the fastest growing mun ...
in 1958.
Stickle played baseball for the Milton Red Sox in the Halton County Intermediate League, and also for the Milton Midgets in 1964.
After playing for the Sarnia Jr. B Legionnaires, Leon played hockey for his hometown Milton Merchant Juniors, a O.H.A Central Junior C team coached by Milton's first NHL player
Enio Sclisizzi
Enio James Sclisizzi (August 1, 1925 – June 27, 2012) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Sclisizzi played 81 games in the National Hockey League with the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Black Hawks between 1947 and 1953. Sclisizzi won ...
in 1965-66 and 1966-67. He led the team in scoring at one point in 1965.
Stickle was also a
snooker
Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...
player, having won a local championship in 1966.
Officiating career
Stickle's first NHL game was October 17, 1970. During his career (in which he wore a
helmet
A helmet is a form of protective gear worn to protect the head. More specifically, a helmet complements the skull in protecting the human brain. Ceremonial or symbolic helmets (e.g., a policeman's helmet in the United Kingdom) without protect ...
from the mid-1980s until his retirement), he officiated six
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...
finals (1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1984 and 1985), 2,069 regular season games, 206 playoff games, two Canada Cups (1981 and 1984), and four
All-Star games, including the
1979 Challenge Cup and
Rendez-vous '87
Rendez-vous '87 was a two-game international ice hockey series of games between the Soviet Union national ice hockey team and a team of All-Stars from the National Hockey League, held in Quebec City. It replaced the NHL's All-Star festivities ...
. From the 1994-95 season until his retirement, he wore uniform number 33.
Controversy
On May 24, 1980 the New York Islanders won the first of four-straight Stanley Cups.
Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games in Wells ...
fans argue they saw an offside that wasn't called, and possibly another, robbing the Flyers of the chance to win Game 6 which would have tied the series and sent the teams to Philadelphia for a seventh and deciding game. If linesman Leon Stickle had blown his whistle in the first period and then again in overtime on goals that would have undoubtedly been contested; had there been a coach’s challenge, and the Flyers had instead won that day, a Game 7 would have been played at the
Spectrum
A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors i ...
, which the Flyers may have won.
The initial non-call occurred in the first period when the Islanders went ahead on a 2-1 goal by
Duane Sutter
Duane Calvin Sutter (born March 16, 1960) is a Canadian former National Hockey League player and head coach. He is one of the famed six Sutter brothers to play in the NHL. On May 21 2019, the Edmonton Oilers relieved Duane from his head of pro ...
. After the game Stickle admitted he missed the call and that the replay shows that the
Clark Gillies
Clark Gillies (April 7, 1954 – January 21, 2022) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He played for the New York Islanders and Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League between 1974 and 1988. Gillies served as captain of the Island ...
drop pass to
Butch Goring
Robert Thomas "Butch" Goring (born October 22, 1949) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Los Angeles Kings, New York Islanders and Boston Bruins. He is a four-time ...
was offside. Then in overtime on
Bob Nystrom’s goal, it’s close enough that it would have merited a long video review and might have been overturned under present-day rules.
Post Linesman Career
After a 27-year career patrolling the blue lines, Stickle joined the
Western Professional Hockey League
The Western Professional Hockey League (abbreviated WPHL) is a defunct minor professional ice hockey league.
The WPHL operated from 1996 to 2001 with teams based in the southern United States, primarily Texas and Louisiana. The league started with ...
, where he spent three seasons as supervisor of officials before being named director of officiating in July 2000. In 2003, Stickle was hired as the NHL's supervisor of officials. Stickle left his job at the time as director of hockey operations for the
Central Hockey League
The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...
. Stickle spent 27 seasons as a linesman in the NHL before moving to the CHL.
Awards
In 2007, Stickle was inducted in the inaugural class of the Milton Walk of Fame. In 2019, the Milton Sports Hall of Fame announced that Stickle would be inducted as a builder at its annual induction ceremony.
Personal
During the off-season, Stickle was active with the Ontario and Canadian Special Olympics, and coached minor league baseball. He enjoys playing golf. Stickle married Nancy Ellen Smith in 1967, and has three children, two daughters Jayne and Christine and a son David.
References
External links
NHLOA.com bio
: The National Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book/1993-94
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stickle, Leon
1948 births
Living people
National Hockey League officials
Sportspeople from Milton, Ontario
Ice hockey people from Toronto