LUPUL WONDERS WHY NASH SKATES FREE

Forgive the Toronto Maple Leafs if they’re just a little bit confused, and perhaps a tad angry. On the same day Leaf winger Joffrey Lupul was suspended two games for a head shot on Victor Hedman of the Lightning, the Rangers’ Rick Nash got off scot-free after a high check from behind to the Panthers’ Tomas Kopecky. “It makes no sense,” a high-level member of the Leafs front office told the Star. No suspension for Nash. No hearing. Nothing. “If someone can explain the decisions on what warrants a suspension and what doesn’t, please let me and the rest of guys know,” Lupul tweeted Friday. The league put out a video, narrated by Rob Blake, explaining Lupul’s suspension. The main reason: Lupul “targeted” Hedman’s head, the “prin- cipal point of contact.” In Nash’s case, replays clearly show Nash’s feet left the ice — a big part of the issue in Lupul’s case — when he hit Kopecky from behind, but the contact point was unclear. No penalty was called. “It was a rotten hit (by Nash, but) there are lots of hits that we don’t like,” NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan told Yahoo Sports. “We don’t like this hit. It absolutely should have been a two (minute minor), and probably should have been a five. “We don’t see this as being principal point of contact to the head. For a fact, we don’t see much contact to the head at all,” he said, adding that it was a “whiplash effect” that caused Kopecky’s head to snap and helmet to fall. “We don’t suspend for leaving your feet. We suspend for leaving your feet and hitting a guy in the head violently.” Kevin McGran