NHL Suspends Sabres' Ray

The NHL continued its crackdown on slew-footing Sunday, suspending Buffalo Sabres right wing Rob Ray indefinitely for an incident in Saturday's 6-2 loss to the Florida Panthers.

The suspension is pending a hearing before NHL senior vice president and director of hockey operations Colin Campbell, who in his first year in the position has initiated the crackdown. Ray will miss at least Sunday night's game at Tampa Bay.

Ray received an attempt-to-injure match penalty at 8:12 of the third period after slew-footing Panthers left wing Alex Hicks. Earlier, Ray received a fighting major and a misconduct, bringing his total for the season to 72 penalty minutes in 18 games.

Slew-footing occurs when a player uses his leg to take out an opponent's feet.

Since succeeding Brian Burke as the NHL's lord of discipline, Campbell has suspended three players for slew-footing. Ruslan Salei of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim got a five-game suspension for a preseason incident against Phoenix and Bobby Holik of the New Jersey Devils was suspended two games for a Nov. 7 incident against Florida.

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