• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

MayorsManor.com

NHL blog, LA Kings hockey news and interviews from The Mayor

  • Radio Replay
  • Prospect Rankings
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / HockeyBlog / Kyle Clifford fined by ECHL, adding insult to nagging injury

Kyle Clifford fined by ECHL, adding insult to nagging injury

December 10, 2012 By John Hoven

Kyle Clifford Ontario Reign v Alaska Aces Kings MayorsManorMost people want good news heading into the weekend. Unfortunately, LA Kings forward Kyle Clifford received a double shot of bad news late last week.

After signing with the ECHL’s Ontario Reign just before Thanksgiving, he’s played in five games and has three goals and six points. So things were going fairly well until they started to unravel a bit on Thursday when the league issued the following statement:

 “The ECHL (has) announced that Ontario’s Kyle Clifford has been fined an undisclosed amount as a result of a violation of the ECHL’s exclusive equipment policy. Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the ECHL and the Professional Hockey Players’ Association, player fines collected by the ECHL are given to the PHPA for its ECHL Player’s Hardship Fund.”

Although the fine is believed to only be a few hundred dollars, it still had to be a minor annoyance for a player just trying to work on his game and stay in shape during the ongoing NHL lockout.

Compounding any frustration Clifford might have been feeling upon hearing the news is an upper body injury that was about to keep him out of the line-up.

After missing Friday’s game vs Bakersfield, Reign coach Jason Christie was somewhat coy about Clifford’s playing status, telling us with a rather wry smile – “It will be a game time decision tomorrow.”

Not only did Clifford go on to miss Saturday’s game, he sat out yesterday as well.

“It’s just rest. We’re trying to get him into game shape,” Christie said when asked for a follow-up explanation yesterday.

Then, after he laughed a little – and perhaps knowing he wasn’t going to smoke things by us a second time – the coach offered some clarification on the situation.

“He has a little nagging injury we just want to be cautious with. It’s nothing serious at all. We just gave him the weekend off and he’ll be ready to go by Friday (note: the Reign are off until then).”

During some further discussion Christie referred to it as just “aches and pains” and added that “he’s been skating” – which supports the notion that he should be back in the line-up at the end of this week.

Clifford, meanwhile, talked not only about the injury, but also about his recent fine when we caught up with him after Ontario’s 5-4 overtime win last night.

“It’s nothing serious or anything to worry about,” said the 21-year old left wing. “We’re just going one day at a time, giving it a rest and then we’ll reevaluate and go from there. We don’t want it to get worse. It’s been getting worse the last week. That’s why we thought it was a good time to rest it up and go from there.”

During the down time Clifford will most likely be seeking out some new sticks as well.

“I like my Bauer sticks. That’s what I’ve been using since playing junior (hockey),” he remarked, as he began to explain why the league fined him. “I know there’s a rule here that you have to use Reebook. I painted them black and I guess you’re not allowed to do that. So, I found out the hard way.”

Sounds like somebody might have turned him in.

“Yeah. I know who did it too,” Clifford quickly shot back. “But, I’m not going to name names.”

Hmmm. The last game Clifford played in was vs. the Alaska Aces – a squad that features several NHL players. Could it possibly have been one of those guys?

In talking with a few people off the record last night, most theories seemed to point in that direction. We’ll probably never know for sure though.

Follow @mayorNHL

Filed Under: HockeyBlog, Interview, Kings, NHL, NHL Players, Reign, Spotlight Story Tagged With: Clifford, comments, ECHL, hockey, injury, interview, Kings, lockout, Los Angeles, Mayor, MayorsManor, NHL, Ontario, quote, Reign

About John Hoven

John Hoven is a former member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and co-hosts Kings of the Podcast. He's also the founder and editor of MayorsManor.com, which has been named Best Sports Blog in Los Angeles and Hockey Blog of the Year. Click "ABOUT OUR TEAM" below for a full bio.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. EmptyTank says

    December 10, 2012 at 2:52 pm

    Funny that the Aces player #44 in the picture above is using a CCM stick. I hope The Colonel wasn’t the only player to be fined by the ECHL.

    • John Hoven says

      December 11, 2012 at 5:12 pm

      Reebok owns CCM

      • EmptyTank says

        December 12, 2012 at 10:01 pm

        Doh!

  2. Media Guy says

    December 10, 2012 at 6:26 pm

    I hope Clifford takes out his frustration the next time he visits the home of the Defening Stanley Cup Champions. Then on his way to the penalty box he can toss a can of black spray paint in the box.

  3. Kenny "Rider" Jones says

    December 10, 2012 at 9:34 pm

    Any particular reason as to why the ECHL requires its players to exclusively use Reebok sticks?

    • John Hoven says

      December 11, 2012 at 5:12 pm

      The ECHL has an exclusive deal with Reebok for pretty much all equipment other than skates. The AHL has a similar equipment deal too.

Trackbacks

  1. Photo Gallery – Ontario Reign vs Idaho Steelheads and teddy bears says:
    December 11, 2012 at 6:48 pm

    […] noted in a previous article, Kings forward Kyle Clifford did not play in the games due to a nagging injury.  Either that or he’s scared of flying teddy […]

  2. Ontario Reign win again, plus injury update on Kyle Clifford says:
    December 15, 2012 at 10:29 am

    […] INJURY UPDATE – As reported earlier on MayorsManor, LA Kings forward Kyle Clifford (who has signed with the Reign during the NHL lockout) is nursing […]

Primary Sidebar

Kings Of The Podcast

Kings Of The Podcast: Ep. 151 – Trade Deadline Review

Time for a review of the week that was. Kings Of The Podcast hosts John Hoven and Dennis Bernstein look at everything the Kings did surrounding the 2023 Trade Deadline, including trading Jonathan Quick and acquiring three new NHL players over four days. They also touched on some of the information in these articles as […]

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

  • Ontario Reign Projected Lineup vs Abbotsford: Gaining Momentum After Big Win
  • Los Angeles Kings 2022-23 Prospect Update – NCAA Edition
  • Ontario Reign Projected Lineup at Tucson: Turcotte Expected to Return
  • Reign Recap: Ontario Falls To Tucson For 10th Straight Loss
  • Ontario Reign Projected Lineup at Tucson: Avoiding 10 Straight In The Desert
  • Projected Lineups – LA Kings vs. Calgary Flames; Heavy Hockey Incoming
  • Reign Recap: Ontario’s Struggles Continue With 5-2 Loss To Abbotsford
  • Ontario Reign Projected Lineup at Abbotsford Canucks; Plus Brief Update on Turcotte
  • Projected Lineups – LA Kings vs. Vancouver Canucks; Here Comes Spence
  • Ontario Reign Projected Lineup at Abbotsford; First of Weekend Series vs. Canucks

Tweets by mayorNHL

Footer

Archives

Tags

AHL Blackhawks Brown camp Carter Clifford coach comments Doughty draft Ducks history hockey interview Kings Kopitar lineup Lombardi Los Angeles Manchester Mayor MayorsManor Monarchs Murray NHL Ontario Penner Playoffs Prospect Quick quote Radio Reign Richards roster Sharks Stanley Cup Stoll Sutter Toffoli trade video WCB West Coast Bias Williams

MayorsManor

  • About Our Team
  • Contact Us
  • Store

© 2023 MayorsManor.com