Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry wants to answer your emails at cmonref@tsn. Cheap Avalanche Jerseys .ca! Hi Kerry, My question to you is what is the going through a referees mind when a missed call or a wrong call results in a game winning goal? I refer back to last weeks game involving Edmonton and Toronto. There was a clear mistake made by the officials in overtime against Ryan Nugent-Hopkins that resulted a turnover and a 3-on-1 break and a game-winning goal for Toronto. I am sure that the referees knew that they had messed up and would certainly have known after the fact. I am sure that during your career that must have occurred at least once. My question is how do you feel after and do you apologize for the error? Chuck --- Hi Chuck: I messed up more than once during my career for sure; the most obvious being Wayne Gretzkys missed high-stick on Doug Gilmour in 1993. A referee never wants to affect the outcome of a game. That infamous missed call certainly affected the outcome of Game 6 of that Western Conference Final when Gretz scored the winning goal in OT immediately after play resumed. Instead, he should have been sitting in the penalty box with a double minor. The teams would have played 4-on-4 until Glenn Anderson served the balance of his boarding penalty. The Leafs would have then gone on the power play "if" neither team had scored to end the game at that point. We know one thing for certain; Wayne Gretzky would not have scored the winner for at least four minutes! Tremendous uncertainty surrounded the aftermath of the missed infraction. When I asked "Killer" what had happened he said that Waynes follow-through of his shot struck him on the chin. I responded, "If thats the case a normal follow-through of a shot does not constitute a penalty!" Gilmour was okay with that understanding. Something just didnt sit right with me so I sought assistance from my two colleagues. Neither of the linesmen (Kevin Collins and Ron Finn) was able to confirm the high-stick which left me with a totally helpless feeling of uncertainty. My desire as the sole Referee in a game was to see everything. In this situation I had failed my objective miserably. It wasnt until the next day however, when I saw a replay of the incident that I became aware of the missed call. As a result, the sick feeling an official gets in the pit of their gut when they mess up wasnt instantaneous but delayed for 24 hours. That sick feeling didnt subside any time soon as I watched Gretzky light it up back in Toronto to eliminate the Leafs in Game 7. While the memory of the incident could never really be erased (nor should it) I had to learn from it and move forward no differently than a player mistake costs his team a game, a series or even a Stanley Cup. Rookie Steve Smiths errant bank shot off the back of Grant Fuhrs leg comes to mind. To his credit and personal strength Smitty bounced back and had a tremendous NHL career. One play or one call should not define a career. There were other times that I knew in the moment that I had blown a call. If I overreacted by signaling a phantom/marginal penalty I wanted to chew my arm off during the delay. At times such as this I instantly knew it was a bad call as much as the player I was sending to the box. Whenever the team captain approached me in protest of the bad call I would admit my mistake immediately. Inevitably the Captains next response was, "You owe us one" or "Better make one up!" While I would respond that "Two wrongs dont make a right" the most difficult challenge was always to fight human nature when you know you erred. I did my very best not to do that very thing - make the dreaded makeup call. I will tell you there were many times that I silently rooted for the success of a teams PK unit. Two minutes can seem like an eternity when your mouth feels like its full of dry sawdust. If the team was scored upon that sick-gut feeling intensified but had to be pushed aside but remaining ever hopeful through the ebb and flow the game would be clearly decided by the players. When an error has been made it is really important to bear down and keep your head in the moment and not dwell on the past mistake. You have to push negative thoughts out and allow them to pass through as opposed to dwelling on them. Sometimes that takes self-talk; almost in a running play-by-play dialogue to maintain focus and avoid missing yet another call. What I am attempting to share with you here is not only the reality of human failure (mistakes made) which we all know happen but more importantly how we respond in dealing with that failure through our individual human nature. Every Official truly cares about the game and gives their very best. Their desire for perfection is an impossible task to achieve yet every Official chases that illusive "perfect game." The most respected and proficient Referees are the ones that minimize their mistakes, admit to them when they occur but most importantly learn from them and move forward. There are always calls throughout a game, a season or a career that every Official wishes he had the opportunity to do over again. Perhaps the Refs in the Leafs-Oilers game would like another shot at viewing and responding as Cody Franson punched Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to the ice from behind in overtime resulting in a three-on-one and Dave Bollands winning goal. Ill leave that call for them to wrestle with and perhaps learn from. Thanks for the thought-provoking question Chuck. Know that we cant alter history - just our response in the present. Colorado Avalanche Gear . Yahoo! Sports columnist Marc Spears says that the Boogie Smooth album may have been an elaborate April Fools prank. Avalanche Jerseys 2020 . Bjoerndalen, who had failed to win any major race for two years before Sochi, writes in a Facebook entry that he is "full of energy and inspiration" after winning the 10-kilometre sprint and mixed relay at last months Olympics. https://www.cheapavalanche.com/ . In taking its goal tally to 99 in all competitions already this season, City delivered another demonstration of its lethal firepower at Etihad Stadium to set up a fourth-round match at home to another second-tier team -- Watford. ATLANTA -- Now thats more like it for the Seattle Seahawks. Shaking off some sluggish performances, the Seahawks put it all together against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Russell Wilson threw a pair of touchdowns passes, Marshawn Lynch ran for 145 yards and Seattle romped to a 33-10 victory in a one-sided rematch of last seasons playoffs. "Its the best game weve played," coach Pete Carroll said. The first-place Seahawks (9-1 for the first time in franchise history), who lead the NFC race for home field, had looked especially vulnerable the past two weeks while struggling to beat lowly St. Louis and winless Tampa Bay. No worries this time. It was over by halftime. With a lightning-quick spurt at the end of the second quarter, capped by Wilsons touchdown pass to Golden Tate with 1 second remaining, Seattle went to the break with a 23-3 lead. "Were excited for the future. We have something special," Tate said. "Now weve set the standard and we want to consistently play this sort of ballgame." The Falcons trailed 6-3 after Matt Bryants 53-yard field goal with 6 1/2 minutes left in the half, but Seattle seized control with three big plays in a row, including a bit of trickery that caught Atlanta off guard. With the Seahawks starting at their 20 after a touchback, Lynch immediately broke off a 37-yard run into Falcons territory. On the next play, Wilson handed off to Lynch, who passed the ball back to the quarterback. Wilson threw it deep to Jermaine Kearse, who hauled in the 43-yard touchdown pass over Thomas DeCoud to stretch the Seahawks advantage to 13-3. After the Falcons went three-and-out, Wilson hooked up with Tate on a short pass that turned into a 46-yard gain. So, on three consecutive snaps, Seattle ripped off 126 yards. Tates reception led to the third of Steven Hauschkas four field goals. Atlanta went three-and-out again, and Tate set up another scoring chance with a 32-yard punt return in front of the Seahawks bench. In the final minute of the half, Wilson drove Seattle down the field for the decisive score. It took a gutsy call by Carroll, who decided to take a shot at the end zone on third-and-5 from the Atlanta 6 with 8 seconds remaining and no timeouts. Wilson loofted the pass into the left corner, and Tate made a brilliant one-handed catch while managing to drag both feet inside the line, just in the nick of time. Fake Avalanche Jerseys. The Falcons (2-7) lost for the sixth time in seven games, a team that once had Super Bowl aspirations now just two defeats away from its first losing season since 2007. Matt Ryan was held to 172 yards passing, while Steven Jackson managed just 11 yards rushing on nine carries. Roddy White returned to the Falcons lineup after missing the past month with ankle and hamstring injuries, but one catch for 20 yards hardly sparked the offence. Seattle finished with a dominating 490-226 lead in total yards. "It was tough sledding out there," White said. "Not how we wanted it to go." This was a complete reversal of the playoff game last January, in which Atlanta led 20-0 at the half and was still up by 20 early in the fourth before Wilson led what appeared to be a historic comeback, putting the Seahawks ahead 28-27 with less than a minute remaining. The Falcons bounced back with two long passes and Bryants field goal for a 30-28 victory that sent Atlanta to the NFC championship game. That game seems so long ago. These Falcons finally scored a touchdown -- just their third in the past three games -- late in the third quarter on Ryans 12-yard pass to rookie Darius Johnson on fourth down. The Seahawks wrapped it up with a 12-play, 80-yard drive that took more than 7 minutes off the clock. Lynch, appropriately, finished it off with a 1-yard touchdown run that sent what remained of the Georgia Dome crowd hustling to the exits. The rest hung around to cheer for the Seahawks. NOTES: Tate finished with 106 yards on six receptions. ... Seattle CB Brandon Browner (groin) left in the second quarter. DT Tony McDaniel (hamstring) left in the third quarter. Neither returned. ... The Falcons played again without OT Sam Baker (knee), who missed his fifth game of an injury plagued season. ... Falcons TE Tony Gonzalez extended his streak to 204 games with at least one catch when he hauled in a 9-yard pass in the third quarter. ... After the game, the soon-to-be-retired Gonzalez swapped jerseys with Seahawks CB Richard Sherman. ' ' '