Suspended for laying out Boston's P.J. Axelsson with an elbow to the noggin last week, Matthew Barnaby took a well-aimed shot at a league head yesterday. Without naming names, the scrappy Buffalo Sabres winger criticized NHL VP and administrator of justice Colin Campbell for his "inconsistency" in dealing with different infractions as the league attempts a crackdown on violent behaviour. Barnaby, who last night served the second of a four-game suspension, cited the much-talked about but un-penalized Eric Lindros hit on Andreas Dackell at the Corel Centre 13 days ago as Exhibit A.

"I don't think there has been any consistency at all," Barnaby, an Ottawa native, said in the Sabres dressing room yesterday morning. "Look at it, Eric Lindros gets away with murder. Then a guy like (Montreal defenceman) Dave Manson throws a check, they review my incident, and I get four games while he gets three. It's just inconsistency."

Manson's suspension also came after he belted the Bruins' Axelsson, leaving the winger with a concussion. Less than a week later, Axelsson suffered another concussion when Barnaby levelled him.

Barnaby said Axelsson shouldn't have even been playing so soon after the first head injury.

"I thought I'd get one game to set a precedent, maybe two," said Barnaby, who has amassed over 1,100 penalty minutes in four NHL seasons. "But I think they took into consideration that it happened (to Axelsson). Maybe they should look at it that if a guy's been hurt (with a concussion), he should be kept off the ice for a month or two. "I understand that my name precedes me, and they wanted to set a precedent, but I've never had a past of doing it before and I won't again.

"Four games is too harsh."

Campbell has been ruling with an iron fist since taking the job previously owned by now-Vancouver GM Brian Burke this season. He has suspended Anaheim's Ruslan Salei five games for a pre-season leg whip on Phoenix centre Daniel Briere. He suspended ex-Senators tough guy Denny Lambert four games for slashing. He has suspended Boston's Rob Dimaio and he has suspended Manson who, on the day after the Lindros-Dackell incident, just laughed and shook his head when told by an Ottawa reporter that the Senators were sending the tape to the league.

Some players think it's getting a little out of hand, that pretty soon guys are going to be sitting for spitting. Barnaby, who loses not only four games worth of his salary but also won't get paid for the off-days in between, said the cash wasn't a concern.

"It's always tough to lose money, but it's a tax writeoff anyways. We'll get it back," he said candidly. "But I'll never get those games back. It's tough, we're playing inter-divisional games now. We're going for first place. I want to be in there." All that said, don't expect Barnaby to be wearing wings when he returns to action. He is an instigator of the first degree. He gets under the skin of opposing players and throws them off their game.

While he has proved himself to be a useful player (Barnaby's best season was 1996-97, when he scored 19 goals and 24 assists to go along with his 249 PIMs) he is just as anxious to beat you with his gloves off as he is with his gloves off. And, as you can see, he does not pull punches. "I'm not going to be changing the way I play," he said. "If I change my game at all, I'll be out of this game in a couple of years."