son alternating.“Power play, that’s part of our secondary scoring too,” Housley said. “Obviously, we’ve struggled a little bit. I think we’ve got to simplify that. But putting some guys in some different spots, we’ve trie

Drew Doughty watched other playoff games this season and couldn’t believe that George Parros Authentic Jaccob Slavin Jersey , the NHL’s discipline czar, had suspended him for a head shot.”I saw four hits last night that deserved more than that,” the Los Angeles Kings defenseman said.Doughty’s one-game suspension was the first of several in the first round for a hit to the head of an opponent. Toronto’s Nazem Kadri got three games and Winnipeg’s Josh Morrissey and Nashville’s Ryan Hartman got one game each. Washington’s Tom Wilson and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov were among those who got off without significant punishment.The criticism, from Columbus to Colorado and from New Jersey to Los Angeles, was loud enough that the NHL’s department of player safety put out a video last week explaining its reasoning for suspending Doughty and Hartman but not Kucherov or Predators center Ryan Johansen.”The illegal check to the head rule is often misunderstood or misstated,” the league said in the video. ”Illegal checks to the head and legal full body hits often look similar at first glance because the difference between legal and illegal can be a matter of inches in a sport that moves fast.”Discontent over the goalie interference rule has been grabbing headlines for weeks, but the head shot discussion carries far more serious implications for a league still grappling with how best to protect its players. What’s acceptable has evolved from the early days of hockey through Scott Stevens’ then-legal crushing blow on Eric Lindros in 2000 to today, where checks to the head are parsed frame-by-frame to determine if a line was crossed. The NHL, too, is still facing a federal class-action concussion lawsuit filed by former players alleging it failed to warn them about the health risks associated with head injuries.Meeting with Associated Press Sports Editors last week, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman insisted there was nothing new about the subject. Asked about player safety, Bettman said Parros is off to good start in the former enforcer’s first season as vice president of player safety. He said he is proud of player safety’s transparency in the form of videos detailing the reasons for suspending a player.”Sometimes we get accused of splitting hairs, but that’s exactly what they have to do Jordan Staal Jersey ,” Bettman said. ”I think he’s reached the appropriate conclusion when it’s been a hockey play that doesn’t transcend the rules and I think he’s been appropriately punitive in cases where it warranted it. There’s never going to be a shortage of critics of what they do.”Doughty, a finalist for the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman, said he hit Vegas forward William Carrier’s shoulder first before his head in Game 1. Kings coach John Stevens added: ”As long as I’m on the earth, I’m going to agree to disagree with that decision.”The league video emphasized that an illegal check to the head concerns a player’s head being the main point of contact, not the first point of contact. Based on experience, the league said, a player’s head snapping back on these kinds of hits indicates significant head contact.Los Angeles general manager Rob Blake, who worked under Brendan Shanahan in the department of player safety from 2010-2013, said it’s a tough job while at the same time reiterating the organization was unhappy with the suspension of Doughty. Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen was upset forward Josh Anderson was ejected from Game 1 against Washington for boarding Michal Kempny and called a hit to the head of Alexander Wennberg from Washington’s Tom Wilson that got only a minor penalty ”dangerous.”Wilson was not given a hearing or suspended. Wennberg missed Games 2, 3 and 4 and the hit was not included in the NHL’s explanation video.Columbus coach John Tortorella didn’t want to weigh in on the lack of punishment for Wilson, a common refrain across the NHL because nothing can be done after the fact. For a more specific reason, Bettman doesn’t weigh in on suspensions because any appeals go to him. He does look at suspension videos before they are issued.”I watch as a fan to make sure they make sense,” Bettman said. ”I want to make sure the videos we send out are clear.””I think player safety as a whole has done an extraordinarily good job of changing the culture Womens Justin Faulk Jersey ,” Bettman said.” We have players not making certain types of hits anymore. We have players who are more accountable for their conduct and understand it and I believe that they’ve been consistent.”—AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tennessee, and Sports Deputy Editor for Newsgathering Howie Rumberg in New York contributed. The Buffalo Sabres have not won in five games.So, after losing 6-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers Saturday on six unanswered goals — four in the third period — they decided it was time to talk things out.The Sabres (17-9-4) had a team meeting Sunday, had a good practice Monday and hope they have sorted things out when they play the Los Angeles Kings (11-19-1) at the KeyBank Center Tuesday night.Article continues below ...The Kings, who have had their problems this season, lost 3-1 to the Red Wings at Detroit Monday night despite having a 43-21 advantage in shots on goal, 19-4 in the third period.“We played a solid game offensively, I think defensively we gave up a little bit too much,” Kings center Adrian Kempe said. “But I think offensively we created a lot and we just have to capitalize on our chances. A lot of guys were frustrated because we played pretty well and created a lot but couldn’t score. That’s always the most frustrating thing. We’ve just got to keep building on that and give up less.”After winning 10 in a row, the Buffalo is 0-3-2.The Sabres felt that bad habits were creeping into their play, even during the winning streak. Another matter that was addressed at the meeting was the lack of effort against the Flyers.“We’ve been pretty good at home this year and I think that that game might have been coming for a little bit,” Sabres right winger and alternate captain Kyle Okposo said. “That’s unacceptable. We’ve addressed it and we feel like we have a pretty good plan in place for how to deal with it and how we’re going to come out on Tuesday. We’ve just got to get back to being us and we’ve got to learn from that game for sure.”During their five-game drought the Sabres have blown the lead four times.Sabres goaltender Carter Hutton Minnesota Wild T-Shirts Womens , who did not play Saturday because of an upper-body injury, has returned to practice and is expected to play this week, although his status for Tuesday had not been determined.“We’re going to kind of see,” Hutton said. “The skate went well today and that’s all. Right now, we’re just going to go with that. We’ll see how tonight goes.”Over the past five games 10 of the Sabres’ 12 goals have come from the top line of Jeff Skinner, Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart. Coach Phil Housley so far has let the players work through, slightly tinkering only with the bottom six forwards.“Obviously, these guys want to contribute and be a bigger part and sometimes it doesn’t happen,” Housley said. “If we can continue to check and play away from the puck better, I think they’ll have opportunities with it. We got away from that last game.”Housley did adjust the power play, which is 1-for-14 over the past six games, on Monday.Rasmus Ristolainen and Rasmus Dahlin were used with Eichel, Skinner and Reinhart in man-advantage situations. Lawrence Pilut was inserted into the second power-play unit of Okposo Chris Terry Jersey Womens , Conor Sheary and Evan Rodrigues with Casey Mittelstadt and Tage Thompson alternating.“Power play, that’s part of our secondary scoring too,” Housley said. “Obviously, we’ve struggled a little bit. I think we’ve got to simplify that. But putting some guys in some different spots, we’ve tried to get as many looks (as possible).”The Kings have been dealing with injuries. Defenseman Alec Martinez did not make the trip to Detroit because of an upper-body injury sustained Saturday. The Kings’ injury list also includes forwards Ilya Kovalchuk (ankle), Carl Hagelin (knee), Kyle Clifford (head), Trevor Lewis (foot) and Jonny Brodzinski (shoulder) and goalie Jack Campbell (knee).The Kings had compiled 109 man-games lost to injury entering the game in Detroit.The Kings recalled defenseman Sean Walker from the Ontario Reign of the American Hockey League Monday and loaned forward Gabriel Vilardi to Team Canada. Vilardi is eligible to play in the upcoming 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship. Walker, 24 has played four games this season with the Kings. He did not play Monday.