Last night's incident with Sami Salo highsticking Ladislav Nagy demonstrates the inability of the NHL's referees to police the game. For the referees to miss such a blatant high stick is yet another example of the NHL needing to find solutions for calling the game. I've seen Zdeno Chara highsticked with no call. How can you miss a high stick on a guy standing seven feet tall on skates?

That combined with the inherent danger of highsticking has given me an idea to fix this problem.

Make the players confess their sins.

Here's how you do it.

First, make highsticking either an automatic double minor or five minute major. I'm not concerned about that. There are people who know more about hockey then I who could make that call.

Second, any uncalled highsticking infraction is an automatic one game suspension. You could have the league reviewing the tapes to determine if any occurred during a game.

Third, allow the players to inform the referees of their team's own infractions. If the players own up to an infraction the penalty is called but the player avoids the suspension. The team must inform the referee of the infraction before the end of the next stoppage in play.

Highsticking is such a black and white infraction that it is easy to determine if it happened or not. Make the players confess instead of trying to get away with it and the problem might be solved.