Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry wants to answer your emails at cmonref@tsn. Zane Gonzalez Jersey .ca! Hi Kerry! I hope you saw that attempt by Joffrey Lupul to elbow Henrik Sedin in the head on Saturday, but missed and took out Nazem Kadri. I just wanted to find out if the NHL has a rule against attempts to injure players. Im sure a running elbow would be a concussion or something serious had Lupul hit his intended target. The refs are not doing enough to protect the players, this went uncalled! Thanks,Adrian Wong --- Hi Kerry, Been wondering about Joffrey Lupuls attempted elbow to the head of Henrik Sedin in the Canucks win over the Maple Leafs. Lupul clearly attempts to use his elbow to hit Sedin as he is flying by him. Sedin dodges it, and it takes a bad turn for the Leafs as he hits Kadri instead. With this, I have two questions: 1. Does Lupuls failure to hit Sedin clear him of everything, or does his obvious attempt to injure stay with him? 2. If it doesnt clear him, why is this hit not being looked at by the league, especially with Lupul having a previous suspension? Thanks,Ben Arends --- Hi Kerry,I was watching the Leafs-Canucks game and completely missed this occurrence. I couldnt believe that this attempt at Sedin was not even brought up by most news operations. Even though Lupul didnt connect, should this attempt to elbow Sedins head not be a suspension or at least be reviewed? To me, it clearly looks like Lupul was attempting to head Sedin in the head. Yes, he didnt connect, but the attempt to connect was there. I would be interested in your thoughts. Jay --- Hi Kerry, In the Toronto/Vancouver game Saturday, Lupul extends his elbow with the intent of hitting Henrik Sedin. Henrik luckily ducks out of the way and Lupul ends up elbowing Kadri instead. Yes, it was a very amusing outcome (perhaps not for Kadri), but this makes me question why the NHL does not use rule 21.1 (Match Penalty) to punish these types of plays when it is clear that Lupuls intent was to strike Henrik Sedin in the head and only because Hank saw it coming, was it avoided. Seems to me like the NHL waits for a significant injury instead of ever punishing the intent. Can you explain this to me? Can you explain why we have a rule that allows refs to punish intent, but it never gets used? Thanks,Steve Platt Adrian, Ben, Jay and Steve: We have another full mail bag today on a potentially very dangerous play. This time we examine Joffrey Lupuls deliberate flying elbow intended for Henrik Sedins head. The forceful elbow narrowly missed the mark but instead caught Lupuls teammate Nazem Kadri flush in the kisser. No call was made on the ice. First, let me offer my perspective concerning the lack of a penalty being assessed on the play (video link). In most cases there needs to be some form of contact for the Referee to assess a penalty. I can therefore understand why one wasnt forthcoming on this play. Elbowing, kneeing and most other fouls come to mind where a narrow miss becomes a non-event and therefore not worthy of a penalty. Slashing on the other hand is the act of a player swinging his stick at an opponent, whether contact is made or not. Other exceptions to this standard of contact are when a player attempts to butt-end or spear his opponent. In these cases a double minor is assessed when no contact is made and a major plus game misconduct results from contact. In the previous two fouls a match penalty is assessed when injury results. The reason for these applications is the inherent danger to a players safety when struck with a stick. We also now recognize the potential for serious injury when an elbow cap is forcefully delivered to the head of an opponent. A number of suspensions have resulted from these types of illegal hits. In all cases the parameters and criteria change when an infraction is deemed to be an attempt to injure an opponent. In this particular situation, even with the absence of contact but given the deliberation and severity of the attempt Joffrey Lupul made to elbow Henrik Sedin in the head a different standard must apply. I want to specifically reference rule 45.4 which I believe should have been applied by the Officials at ice level; "The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a match penalty if, in his judgment, the player attempted to or deliberately injured his opponent by elbowing." The decision Joffrey Lupul made to leave his feet and fully extend his elbow at his opponents head was beyond just tremendously irresponsible but one he should know would result in some degree of injury to Sedin. Just because Sedin veered from his original path behind the goal and cut hard toward the front of the net does not excuse Lupuls subsequent actions with some separation as an attempt to simply make a check. The evidence here clearly demonstrates that Henrik Sedin narrowly avoided the intended contact to his head by looking down at the puck in his skates and thereby altering his head position. Lupul did not let up after missing Sedin and accidentally planted the elbow in the face of Nazem Kadri. Striking Henrik Sedin would have been no accident! I look at this play similarly to a player swinging a stick at the head of his opponent from close range but where no contact was made. Without question I would assess a match penalty for "attempt to injure." I would hope every Referee would do the same. I recall giving Chris Knuckles Nilan a match penalty after assuming his position in the penalty box following a fight, then grabbing a puck out of the bucket and throwing it at his opponent seated in the visitors penalty box. The puck missed Knucks intended target but it was still an attempt to injure! The Player Safety Committee on the other hand has a more challenging task to suspend a player where no contact or adverse result occurred given the standard they have set to this point in their deliberations. I can only imagine the fallout from a team and the NHLPA if a player was suspended without physical evidence of contact—the smoking gun. The primary objectives of supplemental discipline are to hold players accountable for poor and dangerous decisions in an effort to provide player safety and ultimately prevent future injuries. While proving "intent" can be a very difficult task, the overwhelming evidence on this play can only lead a reasonable thinking person to conclude that Joffrey Lupul fully intended on elbowing Henrik Sedin in the head. There have been many times that the Player Safety Committee has suspended a player where no injury resulted. I cant think of one situation where a player was suspended where contact with his opponent did not actually occur. The reality is that this play was likely judged in the same consistent fashion given the absence of physical contact. Any lack of supplemental discipline in cases such as this not only sends the wrong message but misses the intended target completely; namely to provide a future deterrent to a player committing an illegal and dangerous act where injury is likely to result. Kenny Britt Jersey . Its the second straight year he has decided not to play as he cuts back his schedule. Stricker was replaced in the field by Ryo Ishikawa of Japan. David Njoku Jersey .Two San Francisco radio stations say they wont play the song during the duration of the World Series. A Kansas City, Missouri, station responded with plans to play the Grammy-winning track every hour from 7 a. http://www.footballbrownsnflprostore.com/Youth-Duke-Johnson-Elite-Jersey/ . In a series of tweets, it is explained by the Department of Player Safety that Niederreiter makes full body contact with Burrows and although there is head contact, he does not "pick" the head in the course of making the hit.LOS ANGELES -- The Golden State Warriors stumbled out of the gate, missing their first eight shots while falling behind by 11 points and forcing coach Mark Jackson to call two timeouts to steady his young team. Stephen Curry glanced at the clock and realized there was still plenty of time left to knock off the Los Angeles Clippers. Klay Thompson scored 22 points, spiking the ball as time expired, and Golden State beat Los Angeles 109-105 after getting Blake Griffin and Chris Paul in foul trouble in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on Saturday. "A big way to start the series," Curry said. "Weve been resilient all year. Were not going to quit." David Lee had 20 points despite his own foul trouble and Curry scored 14 for the Warriors, who rallied in the third when Griffin and Paul were on the bench together. "Im proud of my guys," Jackson said. "We just had a tremendous will and competitive spirit." Game 2 is Monday night at Staples Center. "The pressure is all on them," Thompson said. "They cant afford to go down 0-2 and go on the road. Its tough to come back down 0-2." Paul led the Clippers with 28 points, and J.J. Redick added 22 points in 30 minutes. Griffin finished with 16 points, fouling out with 48 seconds left and the game tied at 105. DeAndre Jordan had 11 points and 14 rebounds. The Warriors built an 11-point lead early in the fourth, helped by back-to-back dunks by Jermaine ONeal and Thompsons turnaround fadeaway jumper. Then they withstood Pauls desperate but error-filled bid to bring his team all the way back. "We made mistakes," Griffin said. "Some of us, myself included, maybe wanted it too much and came in with an expectation. We just need to relax." Foul trouble plagued both teams, but losing Griffin and Paul for stretches cost the Clippers at both ends. Besides Lee, Andre Iguodala fouled out with 3:04 left in the game. "I kept putting myself in a hole," Griffin said. "I got to do a better job." Paul returned early in the fourth with the Clippers down by double digits. His fast-break layup trimmed Golden States lead to 98-92. Griffin came back at that point, hitting a hook shot and then feeding Paul for a 3-pointer that cut their deficit to 100-97 with 3 1/2 minutes left. Jordan then stepped to the line, having made just 1 of 6 free throws in the game. He hit both and the Clippers got within one. Paul tied it at 102 on a 3-pointer. Darren Collison made one of two free throws, giving the Clippers their first lead since earlly in the third at 103-102. Nate Orchard Jersey. After Collisons block and Jordans rebound on the defensive end, Paul led a 3-on-1. But Harrison Barnes blocked his 5-footer and then hit a 3 for the Warriors. "I probably should have given the ball to J.J. or DC who were running with me," Paul said. Griffin made two free throws for the 18th and final tie of the game, 105-all with 1 1/2 minutes left. The Clippers defence forced the Warriors into turning the ball over on a shot-clock violation. Griffin fouled out and then Thompson turned the ball over. Paul got it and fed Collison, who lost it near the baseline with 37 seconds left and the referees awarded possession to the Warriors, which was confirmed by a video review. Down 108-105, Paul got fouled and missed both. His fifth foul put Green on the line and he missed both. Collison got possession, but turned the ball over when he stepped out of bounds, one of 17 turnovers by the Clippers. "There were a lot of times where we lost our trust in each other," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. "We made too many mistakes to win." The first half was bogged down by 29 fouls, including 15 on the Warriors. The teams split their four games in the regular season, a series that included nine technical fouls, two ejections, one flagrant foul and a postgame confrontation between Griffin and ONeal. But the pushing, shoving and bodies hitting the floor in Game 1 was the result of hard, physical play and not any bad blood. "All that hype absolutely had an impact on how the game was called," Rivers said. "A lot of them were touch fouls." Griffin was limited to four minutes in the first half. He got his first two fouls 36 seconds apart early in the opening quarter and his third at 11:21 of the second. "I tried to keep him from getting easy buckets in transition, which fuels him," Lee said. A three-minute stretch of the third produced a torrent of offence, with each team answering the others baskets. Redick and Thompson dueled from 3-point range and then Redick and Curry exchanged short jumpers with neither team leading by more than three. The Warriors pulled away on a 14-6 run that ended the third with them leading 87-79. NOTES: Green bruised his right leg in the first half. ... Clippers F Danny Granger played for the first time since March 27, when he went out with a strained left hamstring. ... Jackson said C Andrew Bogut is in "serious pain" from a broken rib and remains out indefinitely. ... Jackson played for the Clippers from 1992-94, helping them to a playoff appearance in 1993. NFL Jerseys Wholesale Cheap Authentic Jerseys China Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Cheap NFL Jerseys Discount NFL Jerseys ' ' '