it was basically every player involved

BEREA, Ohio - Sarah Thomas starts the day at her second job by tucking her long blond hair inside her cap, so she doesnt get noticed. Rashard Lewis Jersey . On a football field, thats impossible. Thomas doesnt consider herself a pioneer, just "one of the guys." But as one of two female officials in the NFLs officiating development program, Thomas has a chance to break barriers in a male-dominated profession. This week, Thomas, a former college basketball player, current college official and mother of three whose full-time job is as pharmaceutical sales representative, worked with a crew of officials during Browns mini-camp. Like the players, she worked on improving her skills and honing her craft. One day, she hopes to be on the field with the pros. But not because of her gender. "I am a female, but I dont look at myself as just a female," she said. "I look at myself as an official." Thomas began her officiating career in 1996, when an NFL scout spotted her working a high school game. From there, she joined Conference USA and was invited to join the NFLs developmental program, now in its second year. Thomas worked some training camps and preseason games last season. The next step is a regular-season game, and the earliest that can happen is 2015. Its not her call, so to speak, but Thomas believes shes ready. If this week was any indication, Thomas could be on her way. "Shes done a good job," Browns coach Mike Pettine said after practice Thursday. Pettine believes its time for the league to welcome female officials. "If shes efficient and good at what she does, I have no issues with it," Pettine said. "I think the best compliment somebody paid to her was when someone said, What did you think of the female official? And they said, Theres a female official out here? I thought she was on point." Browns cornerback Joe Haden joked that Thomas was a little whistle happy. "She was calling everything," Haden said, smiling. "I couldnt snap on her. I was chilling." Thomas said her goal is to blend in. She doesnt want to stand out because of her sex — or worse, because shes not competent. Shes dedicated to being a solid, fair and mostly unseen, which is why she pulls her hair up under her cap. Still, sometimes players do a double take when they see her on the field. "I think sometimes they go What is that?" she said. "Yes, I do tuck my hair and at first I really wasnt too sure why. But I get it. We dont want to be noticed and anything I can do to blend in — I like it when I leave the field and people go I told you that was a girl." Thomas has two boys and an 18-month-old girl. She said her sons are most interested in her nabbing some NFL attire or autographs, "I cant do that," she said. Her children have never thought about their mom being anything other than an official, so they dont really grasp that she could make history as the NFLs first female official. "They just know mom officiates and its nothing foreign to them or pioneering or anything," she said. "I do this." ___ AP NFL website www.pro32.ap.org Patrick Ewing Jersey . And Richard Bachman, their rookie goalie, is facing a penalty shot a few seconds after the opening face-off. No pressure, right? Bachman stood his ground against Zack Kassian and saw the puck dribble off the Canuck rookies stick, then settled in and backstopped the Stars to a 5-2 win over Vancouver Tuesday that put Dallas in first place in the Pacific Division. Custom Seattle Supersonics Jerseys . Each day, TSN.ca provides the latest rumours, reports and speculation from around the NHL beat. The latest from Bob As tweeted by TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie on Monday, the Columbus Blue Jackets need to resolve their offseason plans with forward R. https://www.supersonicsjerseys.com/540s-jeff-green-jersey-supersonics.html . With their coach gone, they finally played offence the way he would have wanted. Amare Stoudemire made all seven shots in the first half, Anthony passed and shot well, and the Knicks shook off the surprising departure of their coach to rout the Portland Trail Blazers 121-79 on Wednesday night, snapping a six-game losing streak.On the weekend, there were a few things that got me wondering: First, was this piece by Sarah McLellan about Coyotes LW Paul Bissonnette, who is hoping to expand his role beyond part-time fourth-line muscle. Among players with at least 100 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time this season, Bissonnette ranks seventh in points per 60 minutes, which may be a small-sample fluke, but theres a lot of room between Bissonnettes current role and that of a regular in the lineup. The Coyotes have made sure to put Bissonnette in situations where he can succeed, with offensive zone starts and relatively low quality of competition, but hes generated positive possession numbers over the past three seasons, enough to think that he might warrant consideration for more time. Trouble is, with the Coyotes life-and-death to make the playoffs, they dont seem inclined to give him that opportunity right now. The second thing that caught my attention was Flyers tough guy Jay Rosehill scoring a pretty nifty goal against the Bruins. And third, that was against the Bruins, a team that is sort of the prototype for the fighting teams, ranking second in the league with 46 fighting majors this season. The Bruins have Milan Lucic, a first-line winger who fights; Jarome Iginla, a first-line winger who fights; and Shawn Thornton, a fourth-line winger who fights and gets regular ice time (8:32 per game this year and played 22 playoff games last year). Injured D Adam McQuaid and rookie D Kevan Miller are also a couple of tough customers who play third pair minutes for the Bruins. Theres also been a lot of talk this year about Torontos fourth line which, for a time, included both Frazer McLaren and Colton Orr, and the relative ineffectiveness of that fourth line seemed to cause issues higher up the depth chart. Figuring out playing time for a line that employs two enforcers that dont have enough hockey skills to keep up is, at the very least, challenging. Finally, with the playoffs around the corner, the time will come when teams make hard lineup decisions and, in many cases, that means the designated enforcer goes to the press box. If he can play a bit, though, that can tilt the decision. So, all of this wondering led me to try and find out which of the leagues fighters are actually doing enough to warrant regular ice time; basically, who can play? One look at hockeyfights.com provided a list of 75 players that might be considered fighters (there are probably a few more that could have been included), but it was basically every player involved in at least five fights this season, plus a select few that had four and come with a reputation/track record (Steve Ott, Steve Downie, John Scott, Troy Bodie) and then Bissonnette, who has fought only three times in 37 games. There is an obvious top tier, which includes Iginla (with his most fights since 2009-2010), Lucic and Philadelphias Wayne Simmonds, forwards that play on scoring lines, but have an aggressive side that comes out on occasion. They might as well be excluded from the examination because, even with zero fights, they clearly produce enough offensively to play prominent roles on their respective teams. Teams can use tough guys in lower-leverage situations. As Tyler Dellow pointed out a couple of weeks ago, teams can be judicious in their use of their tough guys, which mitigates their liability, but if the tough guys cant play a lick, it makes it increasingly difficult to be judicious. It should be noted that not all fights, and fighters are created equally. There are heavyweights, who tend to only fight other heavyweights; there are agitators who end up fighting because theyre being called to task for one of (likely) many transgressions; and there are players who, battling for a spot in the lineup or consistent playing time, are willing to use that as one more reason for the team to keep them in the lineup. What makes a fighter useful enough to handle a regular fourth-line shift? Players that have at least 47% Corsi is a decent place to start. From a Dellow post last year, he determined averages for first, second, third and fourth-line players. Sure, theres some room for variance, but if the player is going to be used as more than as a spare part, he cant spend all of his shifts scrambling in the defensive zone. Among the 75 listed below, nearly half (36) had a Corsi over 47%. 23 were at 50.0% or better. Players that have at least an even Relative Corsi. From the list below, that includes only 15 of the 75 players, but that makes sense. Fourth-liners are unlikely to have better possession stats than players higher on the depth chart. There are a dozen players that have both a 50% Corsi and at least a break-even relative Corsi (actually, its 10, but Lucic and Iginla are just below that threshold.) If we can take the position that a fighter isnt likely to be the one driving his teams possession numbers, then if they arent significantly worse than their teammates, that at least puts them in consideration for a regular role. There are obvious exceptions to this case too, particularly when it comes to the Bruins, where the Patrice Bergeron line is so dominant that the likes of Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton have no hope of being close in terms of relative Corsi. Really, if a player fits in a teams top nine, theres not much question whether hes a useful player. Some are more useful than others, of course, but its not as if the league is overrun by third line forwards that dont even warrant a spot in the league. Maybe this should table should count as an appreciation for Patrick Maroon, the suddenly-valuable winger for the Ducks. While one of the leagues most active fighters, with 13, hes a strong possession player (54.8%) who, like most Ducks, has spent time on the wing with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, but hes been more productive recently while playing with Mathieu Perreault and Kyle Palmieri. Maroon has 12 points (3 G, 9 A) in his past 15 games, a marked improvement over 17 points in his first 59 career games. Maroons a big guy (6-foot-3, 229 pounds) who paid his dues in the minors, playing 353 AHL games, but hes also been more than merely a puncher, scoring 58 goals and 124 points in 139 games over the previous two AHL seasons. Its been a long road since he was drafted in the sixth round by Philadelphia in 2007, but hes starting to pay dividends for the Ducks. Take what you will from the data below and there is surely some debate over some of these players being on the bubble in terms of value, but when more and more tangible measures are available for players, it becomes increasingly difficult to justify a players spot in the lineup for intangible benefits. Possession stats come from the indispensable www.extraskater.com PLAYER TEAM POS GP G A PTS PIM CF% CFRel% FT Jarome Iginla BOS RW 76 30 31 61 47 53.8% -0.3% 5 Milan Lucic BOS LW 77 24 34 58 87 54.0% -0.1% 7 Wayne Simmonds PHI RW 78 26 31 57 106 48.5% -2.2% 6 Nick Foligno CBJ LW 70 18 21 39 80 51.2% 1.6% 6 Antoine Roussel DAL LW 77 14 15 29 195 51.8% 1.7% 10 Patrick Maroon ANA LW 59 8 18 26 101 54.8% 5.6% 13 Chris Stewart BUF RW 60 15 11 26 116 48.1% -4.8% 6 Ryane Clowe NJ LW 43 7 19 26 33 51.8% -2.8% 5 Kevin Bieksa VAN D 74 4 20 24 104 51.3% 0.4% 6 Steve Downie PHI RW 60 4 20 24 106 50.0% 0.4% 4 Matt Calvert CBJ LW 52 9 13 22 53 51.3% 1.3% 5 Steve Ott STL C 78 9 13 22 76 44.0% -3.3% 4 Eric Nystrom NSH LW 75 15 6 21 60 46.9% -2.5% 6 Gregory Campbell BOS C 78 7 12 19 43 45.4% -10.7% 5 Marcus Foligno BUF LW 70 7 10 17 80 43.5% 0.1% 5 Derek MacKenzie CBJ D 67 9 8 17 47 49.7% -1.0% 5 Andrew Desjardins SJ C 78 3 13 16 86 50.2% -4.2% 10 Ryan Malone TB LW 57 5 10 15 23 50.4% 1.2% 5 Dale Weise MTL RW 58 5 10 15 59 44.7% -5.4% 5 Barret Jackman STL D 76 3 12 15 95 52.8% 0.0% 5 Chris Neil OTT RW 72 8 6 14 204 50.7% -2.1% 14 Matt Martin NYI RW 75 8 6 14 88 45. Dennis Johnson Jersey. 2% -5.3% 10 Brandon Bollig CHI LW 79 7 7 14 92 51.1% -5.4% 6 Cody McLeod COL LW 71 5 8 13 122 42.0% -5.6% 12 Brandon Prust MTL LW 52 6 7 13 121 42.2% -6.7% 11 Tanner Glass PIT LW 64 4 9 13 83 38.8% -12.3% 6 Mark Stuart WPG D 67 2 10 12 33 47.7% -2.2% 7 Deryk Engelland PIT D 55 6 6 12 58 44.1% -4.5% 6 Travis Moen MTL LW 65 2 10 12 49 45.7% -2.1% 5 David Clarkson TOR RW 57 5 6 11 93 42.6% 0.4% 9 Chris Thorburn WPG RW 55 2 9 11 65 43.3% -7.1% 7 Luke Schenn PHI D 75 4 7 11 58 47.8% -3.2% 6 Tom Wilson WAS RW 78 3 7 10 151 46.1% -2.5% 14 B.J. Crombeen TB RW 54 3 7 10 79 48.6% -3.0% 11 Robert Bortuzzo PIT D 53 0 10 10 74 45.3% -3.6% 6 Jordan Nolan LA RW 62 6 4 10 54 52.0% -4.9% 6 Bryan Allen ANA D 66 0 10 10 73 50.1% 0.2% 5 Troy Bodie TOR RW 44 3 7 10 24 43.6% 1.1% 4 Tom Sestito VAN LW 75 5 4 9 203 44.4% -7.6% 19 Patrick Bordeleau COL RW 78 5 4 9 105 40.9% -6.7% 6 Brian McGrattan CGY LW 73 4 4 8 100 38.4% -9.3% 11 Derek Dorsett NYR RW 48 4 4 8 109 50.3% -3.8% 9 Kyle Clifford LA LW 68 3 5 8 81 53.1% -4.1% 9 Erik Gudbranson FLA D 62 2 6 8 114 50.8% -1.5% 7 Paul Bissonnette PHX LW 37 2 6 8 49 52.9% 2.0% 3 Matt Hendricks EDM LW 74 5 2 7 112 42.1% -4.8% 12 Shawn Thornton BOS RW 60 5 2 7 70 47.8% -8.0% 10 Ryan Reaves STL RW 59 2 5 7 124 45.8% -8.8% 10 Cody McCormick MIN LW 40 2 5 7 50 38.3% -7.6% 8 Kevin Westgarth CGY RW 45 4 3 7 64 42.8% -7.5% 6 Rich Clune NSH RW 54 2 4 6 152 48.5% 0.5% 16 Adam McQuaid BOS D 30 1 5 6 69 50.4% -2.6% 7 Sheldon Brookbank CHI D 45 2 4 6 50 51.5% -4.5% 6 Mike Weber BUF D 64 1 5 6 69 40.3% -4.2% 5 Dalton Prout CBJ D 47 2 4 6 37 49.7% -0.9% 5 Mike Brown SJ RW 55 2 3 5 94 46.0% -7.3% 12 Tim Jackman ANA RW 36 4 1 5 103 49.5% 1.3% 10 Clayton Stoner MIN D 62 1 4 5 82 47.2% -1.6% 8 Daniel Carcillo NYR LW 56 4 1 5 100 50.3% -3.6% 6 Luke Gazdic EDM LW 67 2 2 4 127 36.8% -8.3% 15 Krystofer Barch FLA RW 55 0 4 4 99 44.1% -6.9% 13 Eric Boulton NYI LW 23 2 2 4 88 36.8% -13.0% 8 Anthony Peluso WPG RW 51 2 2 4 65 45.9% -5.9% 8 Zac Rinaldo PHI RW 67 2 2 4 153 46.4% -4.5% 7 Zenon Konopka BUF C 58 1 2 3 83 42.8% -4.8% 11 Matt Carkner NYI D 49 0 3 3 145 49.0% -0.7% 9 Jay Rosehill PHI LW 32 2 0 2 90 43.8% -6.9% 10 Jared Boll CBJ RW 25 1 1 2 60 41.3% -7.1% 8 Mark Fraser EDM D 39 1 1 2 76 42.7% -1.8% 6 Aaron Volpatti WAS LW 41 2 0 2 49 39.5% -9.7% 5 George Parros MTL RW 21 0 1 1 80 28.3% -20.7% 8 Matt Kassian OTT LW 32 0 1 1 56 48.0% -4.0% 8 John Scott BUF LW 54 1 0 1 96 39.3% -5.2% 4 Frazer McLaren TOR LW 27 0 0 0 77 40.6% -3.1% 9 Colton Orr TOR RW 51 0 0 0 98 38.7% -4.9% 6 ' ' '