Lightning/NHL

SLAP SHOTS

By TOM JONES
Published April 2, 2006

IT'S GOTTA BE THE HAIR: Referee Kerry Fraser is often kidded about his perfectly manicured (and well-sprayed) hair. But next season, we won't get to see it. Referees will be required to wear helmets.

"I may have to go down to the wood like Mess (Mark Messier, the player who used to shave his head)," Fraser told the Edmonton Journal. "I'll still look better than Mick McGeough. Now, he's got a big head. Put a helmet on him and he'll look like Magilla Gorilla."

LOWER-UPPER-MIDDLE: NHL teams drive fans and the media bonkers with their descriptions of injuries. Asked last week about an injured player, Calgary coach Darryl Sutter had some fun with it even though he thinks the whole thing is a joke, as in stupid.

"Officially, in March, it's a lower-body injury," he told the Calgary Herald. "We're going to do the same thing that 29 other teams do now. When you guys ask about an injury, instead of me being so honest with you, all you'll hear now is that he's got a lower-body injury."

Asked when the player would return, he said: "He should play in 2006."

Asked about the injured Darren McCarty, Sutter said: "It really is a middle-of-the-lower-body injury. That means he's week to week."

BAD HOMBRE: Last week, Wild defenseman Nick Schultz, who is steady but not very big, laid out Vancouver power forward Todd Bertuzzi with a crushing check. Bertuzzi limped to the bench and when he eventually returned, Schultz cross-checked him.

According to Schultz, Bertuzzi told him he was going to "take your head off." Vancouver's Josh Green warned Schultz, "He will."

After the game, Schultz thought about it and told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "I'm probably messing with the wrong guy."

[Last modified April 2, 2006, 01:53:10]