Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry wants to answer your emails at cmonref@tsn.ca! Hi Kerry, I was wondering what influence, if any, the home team fans can have on the on-ice officials? If a referee misses or blows a call, but its not missed by the other 18,000 refs in the arena and lets the referee know about it by booing and such, does that impact any future calls or how the game is further officiated? Does the name calling and heckling by the fans get under your skin or just fall on deaf ears? Always looking forward to your column, Stephen Lee Stephen, In theory the objective of every sports official is to remain focused and in the moment, regardless of mistakes that have been made. Dwelling on a missed/wrong call or to be intimidated by the fallout from players, coaches and of course, the fans is a recipe for a ref to compromise his integrity and/or commit further errors. It is best to keep all mental thoughts in perpetual motion to allow your brain to function in the moment. A missed opportunity is one youll never get back. A makeup call diminishes any credibility and respect that every official works so hard to achieve. In practice however, we must recognize that refs arent mechanical robots but human beings with feelings, emotions and individualized character traits. These traits are developed over a lifetime but especially during the early formative years. Positive and negative elements of an individuals personal makeup and self-worth are brought into the arena every game and will often dictate how an official responds in stressful situations. One of the most basic human instincts is a desire to be loved; okay maybe way over the top here but how about a need to be liked, appreciated and accepted? If we can agree on that premise then, now place yourself as a referee in front of 20,000 out-of-control hockey fans chanting in unison "Ref, You SUCK," throwing debris at you and threatening your personal safety. How would that make you feel? More importantly, how would you respond? Would you have the courage and personal strength to stand tall in the face of adversity or would you give in to the pressure and alter your judgment in their favor? The flip side is, if you possessed a combative nature, stubbornness and/or arrogance as dominant traits, you just might stick it to someone! What Im really saying here is that the response and action taken by an official when hes pushed to the wall results from his unique internal makeup. All referees will rely on their strengths (skating, judgment, positioning, communication skills etc.) but I found it was most important to recognize my personal deficiencies and keep them in check. I never lacked courage but I recognized very early in my career that positive trait could quickly erode to a stubborn Ill show you attitude that was very counterproductive once my authority was challenged. I have observed a potential infraction and, as the information was being sifted through my brain, the crowd reaction beat my switch to pull the trigger, giving the impression that the crowd made the call. We have all witnessed situations (or been involved in them) when the ref has been jolted to a better sense of awareness as a result of the crowd reaction. Whenever the ref raises his arm, the call should be scrutinized based on its merit and not through the reaction time it took for the referee to make it. I saw old-school referee Wally Harris (excellent ref and great guy) call an infraction that happened behind his back when he caught the reflection of the play in the glass. It was a legitimate infraction but unorthodox in Wallys detection method. Nothing ever phased Wally. A game was held up for over 20 minutes in the Boston Garden to clear debris from the ice that was thrown at this courageous ref. While I experience many emotionally charged moments from fan vitriol, allow me to share one unusual incident. It resulted from ejecting Blackhawks coach Orval Tessier from a game in the Chicago Stadium just prior to him being terminated and replaced by Bob Pulford Feb. 4, 1984. Tessier was feeling intense pressure with speculation of his imminent termination. His players were still smarting from the coachs public suggestion they required heart transplants from the Mayo Clinic. The comment backfired and their ongoing play reflected a seeming lack of interest. When Mt. Orval erupted to incur the game ejection, Hawk fans (21,000 strong) started throwing everything that wasnt nailed down. I was their intended target and the ice became a sea of debris. A chair even flew over the glass from the high-priced seats. I took safe refuge underneath the big clock above centre ice. Coach Tessier walked across the ice to make his way to the Hawks dressing room and slipped as he kicked at a popcorn box in his path. My mouth was dry as sawdust and the blood felt like it had drained from my entire body, causing numbness in my extremities as shock and awe rained down from the rafters in the Madhouse on Madison. My emotions were raw. I felt vulnerable and alone as Hawk fans did their very best to inflict some form of retribution against me. Moral support then came to me from the most unusual of places. Captain Doug Wilson and alternate captain Bob Murray skated up to me. I was expecting additional protests to be lodged against me by the two captains. Instead, they thanked me for ejecting their coach and expressed a wish that I had done so earlier in the game! I thank them sincerely for the support they provided but suggested they should move away since the three of us made a bigger target and I feared for their personal safety. When the fans had nothing left to throw, the rink attendants filled wheelbarrows with the trash and the game resumed without further incident. Buoyed in part with the support I had received from the Hawks captains, in addition to my personal character traits, I weathered the storm. I did not allow the fans to dictate what I called moving forward in that game. After all, they had nothing left to throw at me! Adam Henrique Jersey .Patterson marked his anniversary by proving his worth — once again.Lou Williams poured in 26 points, and Patterson drained two huge three-pointers late in the fourth quarter, as the Raptors topped the Denver Nuggets 112-107 in overtime Monday. 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A yellow "Masters 2014" flag. It was a not-so-subtle reminder that the Frys.com Open is no longer a Fall Series event for players to chase their tour cards at the end of the year, but the start of the PGA Tours new 2013-14 season that comes with all the perks. And it was a reminder to Walker that he gets to go places where he always felt he belonged. In his eighth season and his 188th tournament -- and with a little help from 23-year-old Brooks Koepka -- Walker won a back-nine duel Sunday by making a 6-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole and closing with three pars for a 5-under 66. That was more than enough for the 34-year-old Texan to win by two shots. "This was the final stepping stone," said Walker, who has played on more tours than he can remember to get to the big leagues. It turned out to be a learning experience for Koepka, who had a four-shot lead with 11 holes remaining until he began missing short putts, all of them to the left. It started with a 3-foot par putt that he missed on the ninth hole. The most significant was a 6-foot birdie attempt on the 15th hole that would have matched birdies with Walker in the group ahead and regained a share of the lead. Koepka bogeyed the next two holes and closed with a 72 to tie for third. "Things just werent going my way," Koepka said. "I just didnt make the shots I needed to win. Congrats to Jimmy on that. He played very well. But just try to learn from the whole experience. Any time you can put yourself in that kind of pressure, its always good. It you take something from it, thats even better." Walker finished at 17-under 267 and cracked the top 50 in the world ranking for the first time. Vijay Singh closed with a 68 and wound up with the 27th runner-up finish of his Hall of Fame career, and his best result since he sued the PGA Tour in May over its procedure in investigating Singhs admission that he used deer antler spray. Koepka tied for third with Kevin Na (64), Puerto Rico winner Scott Brown (64) and Hideki Matsuyama, the 21-year-old Japanese star who has joined the PGA Tour. Matsuyama, who played in the Presidents Cup last week, birdied his last three holes for a 66. Along with the Masters, Walker also gets to go to Maui in January for the Tournament of Champions, another place he has never been, and he is assured a spot in the PGA Championship for only the fourth time in his career. "I felt like I was good enough to be in them, play in them," Walker said. "Theres always this big pressure to get into Augusta, and I would press here, press there.dddddddddddd You want to be playing in the big stuff. Thats what Im aspiring to do -- play against the worlds best." It wont be his first trip to Augusta National. Club member Paul Sarvadi invited Walker and his father about five years ago, one of Walkers favourite memories even in the chill of winter and a light rain. His father, a scratch golfer who once shot 60, birdied three of the par 5s. Walker shot 72 one day, and played the back nine in 35. "A cool experience," he called it. Koepka was playing on a sponsors exemption that he received without asking. Tournament officials identified him as a potential star when he started the year with no status on any tour, and then won three times on the Challenge Tour to earn his European Tour card. He qualified for the British Open the day after his third Challenge Tour win. He was between stops in Scotland and Shanghai, and now his plans are slightly altered. Koepkas finish gets him into Las Vegas next week before he goes back to the European Tour for the BMW Masters in China. Billy Hurley III closed with a 68 and NCAA champion Max Homa from Cal birdied two of the last three holes to tie for ninth. That gets them in Las Vegas. Koepka won all of his Challenge Tour events in Europe with the 54-hole lead, experience he figured could only help. For eight holes, he was on the verge of running away from the field. He rammed in a 45-foot birdie putt on the sixth hole to reach 17 under, and when Singh in group ahead three-putted the seventh for bogey from about the same range, Koepka had a four-shot lead. It was gone in four holes. Koepka had about a 15-foot birdie putt from the collar of the par-5 ninth green that went about 3 feet by the hole. But the stroke on his par putt looked a little quick, and it caught the left lip and spun out for a bogey. On the par-3 11th, he pulled a 6-foot par putt. That dropped him into a tie for the lead with Walker, who was in the group ahead and had made a 15-foot birdie on the eighth and a two-putt birdie from long range on the ninth. Asked if there was a putt that unsettled him, Koepka said, "Maybe the putt on 9. That wasnt very good." They traded birdies -- Koepka with a 3-footer on the par-5 12th, Walker with a 30-foot putt from the fringe on the 13th, setting the stage for the decisive stretch at CordeValle -- the par-5 15th that could be reached in two, the par-4 17th that played 297 yards over the water. And thats where it was decided. "I cant get too down on this week," Koepka said. "I know Ill be criticized. But this year has been amazing. This week I played well. It happens to the best of them." ' ' '