He Gets a Job in Turin

Dennis LaRue works alongside the greatest hockey players in the world, and he has worked the Olympics twice before, but he still is excited about being named the lone American referee for men’s hockey at the Winter Olympics.

“The Olympic atmosphere is incredible,” said LaRue, a 15-year NHL veteran from Spokane. “It’s really a celebration.”

LaRue is one of 10 referees who will work with 14 linesmen when the men’s play begins Feb. 15 in Turin, Italy. All were selected by the International Ice Hockey Federation.

Other NHL officials are Canadian referees Paul Devorski, Dan Marouell and Don Van Massenhoven, Canadian linesmen Steve Miller and Pierre Racicot and American linesmen Thor Nelson from Minot, N.D., and Tony Sericola from Albany, N.Y.

The federation likes to spread officiating duties among different countries, and LaRue points out that his status as a high-ranking American referee has helped him earn his Olympic assignments. He also worked as the lone American referee in Calgary in 1988 and Salt Lake City in 2002.

“To participate in Salt Lake, that was the best hockey you’ll ever see,” LaRue said. “As a hockey fan, which I’ve always been, that part is terrific. To be out there participating in it, it’s almost indescribable.”

LaRue, 46, began officiating as a youth hockey player in Spokane.

“I was probably about 12 or 13.... I got $2 or $3,” he recalls.

Nowadays, he makes more than $200,000, jetting all over the United States and Canada to referee 72 NHL games a season.

He still finds enough time for golf -- “my other passion” -- to be the reigning Spokane City Amateur champion.

Olympic hockey differs from the NHL in that games are officiated by one referee instead of two, and the ice surface is larger.

Stephen Walkom, the NHL’s director of officiating, said that should pose no problem for LaRue.

“He’s always dedicated himself to being in top physical condition,” Walkom said.

Asked whether he would get butterflies at the Olympics, LaRue, who has worked various international tournaments, said, “Oh, absolutely. One of the keys in this business is that you have to have confidence in your abilities. But that doesn’t prevent you from being anxious about the task at hand.”

LaRue said his previous Olympic assignments had been blessedly uneventful on the ice.

“Part of the deal with us is that we try to slide under the radar screen,” he said. “We don’t want to do anything too funny or too stupid. We don’t like to draw attention.”

He added, though, that he had found it alternately humorous and annoying when certain Russian players “forgot” how to speak or understand English when it served them at the 1988 Games.

“They had an amazing selective ability to translate certain phrases,” LaRue said sarcastically. “And they also knew the universal way to express anger with a four-letter word.”

LaRue says his Olympic experience will be even better if he’s selected to work in his first gold-medal game.

“That’s absolutely the goal,” LaRue said. “The guys I work with, we’re all supportive of each other, but we’re all competitive.

“I don’t think it’s ego. I don’t like that word. From a professional standpoint, you want to work the best games.”