John Ashley Leaves Dead Puck Era, Now Cold as Ice

Hockey Hall of Fame referee John Ashley, who worked more than 650 NHL games in a career that began nearly 50 years ago, has died. He was 77.

Ashley was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1981, following 18 years in the NHL - 13 as a referee and five as a scout and adviser to officials. He refereed 622 NHL regular-season games and 58 in the playoffs during his career. From 1964-72, he worked every postseason Game 7.

"I never hesitated putting him into any key game under any situation," former NHL referee-in-chief Scotty Morrison said in the Cambridge Sports Hall of Fame induction program.

The morgue will keep his body checked; pallbearers will handle the boarding into the hearse; family and friends will save obituaries by clipping them out of the newspaper; and mourners will be comforted through holding onto one another.

[USA Today]