ORANGE C.R.USHER

Because I am not a very nice person about the Pittsburgh Penguins, I have this to say to them and their fans:

HA HA!

No, I don't think the Flyers would beat the Wings in this series, but I do think they would have scored a goal by now.

What an embarrassing showing from the Eastern Conference in this year's final. Way to go, Penguins. You let the Red Wings score 7 goals on you and you haven't even scored one yet. As embarrassing as that is, your coach is the bigger embarrassment. How he can even stand up there and complain about the refereeing (the Wings dive?! The WINGS obstruct??) How the hell do you think your team even made the finals, you ninny? And let's not even start with the things Crosby said. An embarrassment of a captain, that.

The Wings are simply the better team, all around, and it's so satisfying as a Penguins-hater to see this stuff go down. I doubt two more games will go by without the Penguins scoring, but that would be awesome.

Anyway, that's me indulging in schadenfreude for today. Game 3's tonight. I'll have it on. The Wings are actually fun to watch.

Ok, I've settled down and can look at things with a clearer perspective now.

It was an up-and-down season but overall the Flyers had much more success than I think anyone realistically imagined. I'm not disappointed in the big picture here. It only makes next year all that more delicious to envision. The next couple months will be interesting, too -- the draft, of course, but more interesting will be what happens through June coming up to July 1. I don't want to see Carter or Umberger disappear to another team. Will they get them signed? For how much? Who else will stay, and who will go?

I'll do some of my own thinking about that.

For now, a few comments about what's going on out in the Western Conference. The other night Dallas again successfully held off elimination by winning Game 5 2-1. I didn't watch the game, but I saw on the highlights that it was Joel Lundqvist that scored the game-winner in that match, on a line with Toby Petersen and Loui Eriksson. Flashback to Iowa! I watched a couple periods of the game last night and was just shaking my head. The first period went sort of like the Flyers/Pens game did, with Detroit scoring 3 unanswered goals. Then another in the second period. Then I went to bed, and see this morning that the Stars at least held Detroit off for the rest of the game and scored one of their own, but whether it was a 6-0 trouncing or a 4-1 loss, elimination is elimination. The Red Wings advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.

And right now, the Red Wings are my favorite team. Wings in 6.

----------------

To the person who landed on this page using the search terms "daniel briere shirtless", sorry (?) that you didn't find what you were looking for!

This game is a complete joke. The Flyers are not playing a very good game by any means, but come on:

1) Apparently, Penguins can mess with Biron behind the net, but let a Flyer mess with Fleury and he goes to the box.
2) Apparently, Fleury can handle the puck outside the trapezoid, and it's not a penalty in this game.
3) Apparently, Pens can do some textbook interference on Briere, but it's not a penalty in this game. Penalty called there, goal #3 doesn't happen like that.
4) Apparently, Mike Milbury is so in love with Sidney Crosby that he cannot control himself on national television -- I really think he may propose to him before the end of the game. Seriously, guys, a little bipartisanship would be great. He told Crosby "Go get 'em" before the game. You make me sick.
5) Apparently, the referees can decide they don't want Fleury's shutout to be wrecked, and deny Thor's goal. They didn't even say why it wasn't a goal!! HELLO?! TELL ME WHY THORESEN'S GOAL WAS WAVED OFF SO FAST THAT THE WIND FROM THE REFEREE'S ARMS TOUSLED MY HAIR!!!

The NHL is giving itself what it wants here, and the Flyers are obliging them. They are not playing physically enough and they are playing deflated and they simply are not getting any breaks here (and not helping themselves, either).

I am so upset that I feel sick and I can barely stand to think about watching the third period.

------------------

Ok, so they finally explained Thor's no-goal. Apparently, he interfered with Fleury, so they waved off the goal. Ok, so the Flyers CAN interfere with the goalie and not have it called a penalty.

Very, very confused.

And embarrassed. And actually about to cry. I can't stand that the team that shouldn't have made it past Montreal, but did, is going to crash and burn in this way. 5 minutes of ugliness left, and all I can do is look forward to next year (and hope Detroit / whoever just crushes the snot out of the Penguins in the final).

That's all for now. I can't deal with it right now. If only they could have gone down with a real fight, not this ... whatever it is.

I am too much of a Sudafed space cadet today to write a dissertation on last night's game, but I wanted to say a few words.

Flyers: where was this team the prior three games? You were awesome last night, except for a few minutes in the third where you seemed to scramble a bit too much, allowing Jordan Staal (maybe the only Penguin I wouldn't spit on if I passed him on the street) to score a couple and make my heart stop. You forechecked, you got the puck past the neutral zone (and got yourselves past, too), you beat the Penguins at their own game. You got calls to go your way for once. This time, it was the Penguins complaining about the refereeing (see what happens when they aren't handed the game by the stripes?). You were physical, you took shots, and stood up, you won.

The news reports that Timonen and Coburn may be back for Sunday's Game 5 -- and you can bet that precious little will stop them, if they really are that close -- and then, folks, we have a completely different series on our hands. The Flyers showed us last night that they remember how to play a good team and beat them, and if they can get their two best defensemen / extremely important cogs back, it's going to be very interesting in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

They are not out of this yet. And why should they be? Resilient and motivated. They can do it, and I hope I get to see it happen.

GO FLYERS. WOOOOOOOOO!!

Today I have on a new orange and white striped shirt and black pants. It's all I have that I can wear to work and still show my Flyers patriotism. It's been a long day already, and it will continue to be a long day. I will have to go running for an hour after work to fill up some time, rather than sit at home and be nervous about the game coming up at 7:30.

Until then, I will go back into the microscopy lab, do some work, and dwell on the following:

"The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and 1975 New York Islanders are the only NHL clubs to overcome a deficit of three games to none in a playoff series. Those teams did it 33 years apart. And this year is 33 years from 1975." (Noted in an article in the paper today.)

And, let's see, the two teams that blew those 3-0 series leads were .... the Red Wings (who were, until last night, up 3-0 on Dallas) and the Penguins (who are, right now, up 3-0 on the Flyers).

Ok, you know how non-scientific I can be about superstitions and stuff like that. So I'm sitting here nodding to myself and hoping that the hockey gods, with their brain-exploding coincidences, don't reserve the third miracle comeback in the history of the NHL for the Dallas Stars.

(While quietly preparing myself for the worst. I am not capable of total optimism.)

I am trying to accept things for what they are. I never expected the Flyers to even get to the point where they are facing elimination from the Eastern Conference Final this season, so there is my silver lining.

And if it were just that, I think I might be able to look at tomorrow’s game without this gnawing bitterness in my stomach.

It is the knowledge that if they do lose, the Pittsburgh &@$%ing Penguins will go to the Stanley Cup Final in their place.

Any other team, people. Any other team, and my disappointment would merely be disappointment. But it is the Penguins, so I am disappointed and full of hate. And we will never be able to know if the Flyers could have faced them better with Timonen and Coburn healthy, though I suspect they would have because the Flyers have beat this vile team before – five times this season, in fact. They are beatable. But the Flyers are not playing them like they are beatable and I can’t stand it.

The game last night was almost impossible to watch. The Penguins got their comfortable lead and then they 1-2-2’d it all the way to the end. You know what that is, right? RIGHT.

TRAP. TRAP IT’S A TRAP TRAP IT’S A TRAP OH MY GOD WHY DON’T I JUST GO TO BED THIS IS SO $%#^ING BORING YOU PENGUINS MAKE ME SICK TRAPPING TRAP TRAP TRAP.

And it made me sick that the Flyers couldn’t break out of it.

I was also nauseated by the announcers. It angers me that I can’t watch my team’s conference final series with my team’s usual announcers, and have to instead listen to the Vs. people, who are clearly in love with the Penguins and cannot quit slobbering over them at every possible moment. Case in point: QUIT BRINGING UP THE EDMONTON OILERS THAT ALSO WENT 11-1 IN THE FIRST THREE ROUNDS. This Pittsburgh team is nothing like that team. Look at who Pittsburgh played in the first round. There are four of those games right there, silver platter and all. Just saying. SO KNOCK IT OFF (and knock many other slobberings, gushings, and fawnings off, too). Besides, if the Penguins are so amazingly awesome, why aren’t they beating the Flyers 8-1, 7-2, 9-2? How come they can only pull off no more than four goals (including empty-netters) against a team without two of its best players? Yeah, because they aren’t as good as you’re making them out to be. Ok, they are good. I see that. I get that. But they are not mind-blowing awesomeness the likes of which this league has never seen (though you might be forgiven for thinking so, listening to these ninnies on Vs.). The Flyers are making monstrous mistakes left and right and the games are still only 4-2, 4-2, 4-1 with empty-netters.

If I’m going to be clinging to a thread of hope Friday, the Flyers are going to have to figure it out. I believe that they can, and I certainly hope that they do. Otherwise, I’m going to be sad, bitter, and cheering for the Red Wings like I’ve never before cheered for a team I don’t support.

GO FLYERS. Even though you are down 3 games to 0, I still think you can beat this team. Why not? You are not the team you have shown yourself to be these last three games. You are better than that, you are better than that, you are better than that, and you can prove it to me and everyone else tomorrow night. It’s your last chance, after all. Take it.

Bad weekend in hockey for Philadelphia fans.

Friday night, the Phantoms lost to the baby Penguins, leaving them 4 games to 1 in the division finals and so their season ended. It was an away game, so I did not see any of it, and have scarcely read anything about it, so I cannot comment on it. Not even the penalties assessed can help me out, since there were only five minors called the entire night (three against the Phantoms). I’m disappointed that the Phantoms’ run ended after two rounds – much of the season was played in such a way as to suggest a much longer gambit, even with Boucher leaving, some injuries, call-ups, lack of send-downs, and a trade. This dinged the Phantoms, and there were some exposures that could be exploited by an opposing team such as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but I do think the Phantoms were capable of better than allowing a three-goal lead to slip away to lose in OT more than a week ago; definitely capable of better than they showed last week Monday; and never got a chance on Tuesday. This series was a frustration that shouldn’t have been so frustrating.

I am also extremely disappointed that my last viewing of the Phantoms live was that charade last Wednesday. I will do my best to forget about it, but you know, I hold a grudge for a long time. I’m sure I will be dwelling on it at some point next season – if it’s even that long before I dwell on it. I wanted to see hockey last Saturday night, dammit. I wanted to see some this week, too. I wanted to see the Phantoms with the Calder Cup in June.

Guess you don’t always get what you want, huh?

Didn’t get what I wanted out of the Flyers, either. As expected, Timonen’s absence hurt. Being forced to mess with something that had been working pretty well brought them down a bit. Friday’s game was no fun to watch. They still held in it reasonably well, but the end result was a loss to that team that I can barely stand to look at. 4-2, down a game in the series.

Sunday’s game, the hockey gods laughed in our faces again, as Braydon Coburn, the Flyers’ second-best defenseman and total workhorse, took a violent puck to the face. He dropped to the ice with his gloves covering the damage, while he bled (“tell-tale signs of blood on the ice”, said the stupid announcer – it’s not signs of blood, you fool, that is blood). It had happened pretty fast, and all I saw was a play and Coburn going down with the announcer saying he’d been hit up high. I assumed a high stick, and saw the blood, and was ready for a nice 5-minute major power play. Not that I wanted Coburn badly hit and bleeding in order to get a 5-minute major power play … but damn, if you’re going to lose someone who got hit in the face, it’d make taking it better if you get something out of it. But it wasn’t a high stick. Just a puck. And he never came back to the game after leaving it.

So the Flyers got to play a game without their two best defenseman. One of them quarterbacks the power play (among other duties) and it’s clear that the Flyers miss him in that position. The other kills penalties (among other duties), and last night it was clear they missed him too. The fact that the Flyers held on as they did without either of them is a testament to their will and ability to step it up. Hatcher played almost 30 minutes last night. For someone like him, that’s way too much time. But what else are the Flyers going to do? They had 5 d-men out there. You aren’t going to give Modry all that time, though they all played a lot.

I am tired of fuming about god-damn poor refereeing. Perhaps I should just write one generic anti-officiating post and direct your attention to it whenever some game happens where the opposite of reasonable officiating has occurred. It was bad last night all-around, but a lot of those bad calls Completely Screwed^TM the Flyers. Given the opponent, I’m not really surprised. It’s not even conspiracy territory anymore. It’s just the way it is. I’ve got some time and some rage, and this is my blog, so I’ll discuss, in my own special ranty way. I’m not even sure where to start, so I’ll just jump in and have a go.

Hatcher made a textbook defensive play on Malkin, getting in the way and playing the man exactly the way you’d want to play someone like him.



TWEET. Somehow that is now deemed to be hooking, and his stick was never horizontal to the ice (which, if you listened to announcers all season long, is the calling card of a hook). I mean, LOOK AT IT.




I said to my dad, who was sitting on the sofa with me, “That was a terrible call, and if the Penguins score on this power play, I’m going to be so mad.” (Had my dad not been there, my sentiments would have included a lot of [bleep] and %^$&.)

Only seconds later, the Penguins scored.

I am still pretty mad about that sequence of events, but the fact that an obvious Penguins goal was not called about evens that out. Crosby slipped the puck past Biron, who scooped it quickly back out – right at the post, very quick action. The referee did not indicate a goal – waved his arms to indicate no goal, in fact, in spite of Crosby throwing his arms up in the air to celebrate, in spite of Crosby’s whining and begging. So the play went to Toronto, and I was pretty sure that again, the Flyers were going to be shafted. The review went on and on. Replay after replay from several angles were shown. In them, a person had every right to infer that the puck had crossed the goal line completely. There is no way that puck did not. However, Biron’s glove was over the puck as he scooped it out. The glove masked the space between the puck and the goal line, meaning that there was no way to definitely prove that the puck had been over the goal line. So Toronto made what appeared to be the right call (they cannot overrule the call on the ice if there is no conclusive, definitive evidence that what the referee called was not correct), it was the referee who made the bad call. They clearly did not have this picture to help them out.



I would be thoroughly beside myself if that had happened to the Flyers. Ok, so the Flyers benefited from that, no doubt. Like I said, perhaps in the grand scheme of things, it evened out the horrible call on Hatcher that led to a PP goal.

A non-call that has me up in arms is the elbow that Malkin gave Briere. It happened in front of the linesman. Help me out about the role of the linesman. If something egregious like that happens in front of him, can he not do anything? It’s a serious question. Also, why does Malkin get away with such cheap and dirty play? I’ve seen him do some extremely questionable things – and things that are not in any way questionable but outright bollocks – and get away with all of it. The slew-foot on Mara in the series against the Rags was totally unnecessary. The elbow on Briere – the play was nowhere near them. I disliked Briere’s spear to Ovechkin’s groin that time a couple seasons ago, but I’m thinking now I might not mind so much if he retaliated in a similar fashion to Malkin. Someone needs to police that situation. Obviously the league doesn’t give a damn what Malkin does, and if the Flyers are going to get penalized anyway and thrown in the box for such things as plain-as-day honest defense, why not actually make the penalty worth it? Elbow him. Spear him. Anything to make him think twice about another cheap elbow, another cheap slew foot.

Another stellar example of completely blown officiating was the goaltender interference call on Briere, who was neatly chucked into Marc-Andre Fleury by a Penguin. It couldn’t have been more obviously not Briere’s fault had he been picked up and thrown six feet at Fleury (you know, like the Incredible Hulk might throw a bad guy into a pile of trash bins or something). Orpik used Briere as a battering ram from behind the net to the front of the net and interfered with his own goalie. TWEET! I almost think Orpik was sure the call was going to be against him, but somehow, it was Briere that was shuttled to the box.

Continuing this officiating castigation -- you know things are bad when the camera is on John Stevens and he is going absolutely ballistic (or, as ballistic as John Stevens gets). The Flyers iced the puck and the Penguins dallied around in their zone, not touching the puck. La la la. Not touching – can’t get mad! Not touching – can’t get mad!! Oh wait, we can get mad, and then even more mad when no delay-of-game was called. John Stevens, livid, hammering a stick on the boards and shouting, plainly, “BULL F$%#ING SH%&” and other variations using those three words. I agreed. And you want another shining example of cheap and dirty play (in a different way than Malkin’s exhibition)? Jarkko Ruutu (epitomizing the cheap and dirty player) threw himself into Biron, who then retaliated by checking him to the ice once Ruutu had stood up again. Ruutu flopped. Biron was called for roughing, and Ruutu for diving. Biron’s penalty-box stand-in went over to the bin and had a seat, but Ruutu went back to the Penguins’ bench and perched there, with that disgusting smug grin he gets. La la la. Sat there. La la la. Sat there. Having been assessed with a penalty, he sat there refusing to report to the penalty box. La la la. WHY DID THIS GO UNPENALIZED? Delay of game, at least, no? Unsportsmanlike conduct!! SOMETHING!!! It’s ridiculous and an embarrassment to the game. Ruutu to a tee, of course, but he shouldn’t be allowed to get away with BS like that. No one should.

Looking at silver linings, though: for one, Richards was awesome last night. I fell in love with his play again when he intercepted a pass near the neutral zone and was off to the races all on his own, skating in on Fleury and picking the goal out neat as could be. It was shorthanded, by the way. He is a master. For another, the Flyers were without their two best defenseman essentially all night and still the Penguins had a tough time beating them. They certainly didn’t run away with the game. The Flyers controlled the puck much better than they did in Game 1 and were hurt by having to kill penalties without Coburn (a PKer) and their power play is not up to snuff seeing as their PP QB is out dealing with a blood clot. Their biggest mistake, the game-killing mistake, was Downie failing to clear the zone, then Hatcher (I think?) failing to clear the zone, and the Pens pounced. Basically, a turnover of the kind that has too many times been their demise. Improvements in play were made from Friday to Sunday, and I feel more or less satisfied with the Flyers, given the adversities they are facing. I think they will have an even more improved showing on Tuesday for Game 3 in Philadelphia.

I wish I could go to either of these two home games, but my god have you seen how much people are selling tickets for? I have to be able to eat this month.

Ok, still not going to dwell on the loss of Timonen (except to say that I think the Flyers can overcome it) ....... I was reading an article in the Inquirer about this Flyers team and a couple of the very last few sentences were my favorite.

"There are four teams playing for the Cup. The Flyers are one of them."

I will dwell on those words instead, and savor them as I watch the next games with a nervous heart. I was excited for the Phantoms during their playoff run in 2005, but somehow this feels a thousand times bigger and I don't know how I'm going to be able to stand it.

Timonen's not going to be able to play.

A blood clot. The Flyers' best defenseman. Can't play in the Eastern Conference Finals.

I really think ..... that if I think about this too much right now ......... I will cry.

Last night’s Phantoms/Penguins match wasn’t a hockey game, it was a farce of a show led chiefly by one Frederic L’Ecuyer, an absolute scandal of an official and a jackass to boot.

The pre-game announcements were taking place and I noted that the referee was to be this L’Ecuyer, the man to whom I wrote a letter on my blog back at the beginning of April. Right then, I sent J. a message saying, in short, that the Phantoms were f’ed. It was, at the time, just a guess. An educated one, to be sure, but I still hoped perhaps I would be wrong.

The game wasn’t even two minutes old before the first whistle blew – shockingly, in favor of the Phantoms. The Phantoms, unfortunately, did not score on their gift of a power play, and L’Ecuyer realized that he had mistakenly penalized the wrong team, and started making up for it almost immediately. Ten seconds or so after the conclusion of the Phantoms’ power play, Denis Gauthier was given a five minute major for an elbow. I did not see a replay of this alleged major-deserving elbow, but what I did see was a Wilkes-Barre player down on the ice milking it for every second he could, skating back to the bench with a wince and a wink at his teammates. Did he miss a shift? I don’t think he did. Gauthier was in the box, and then not even a god damned minute later, Triston Grant was whistled for charging. The replay showed a hockey play. I didn’t see a penalty in it. (I know I’m a biased fan, but I am able to admit when a penalty is a penalty.) So now the Phantoms were down 2 men for an entire two minutes (considering not even a minute of the super five minute PP wasn’t done), and of course Wilkes-Barre scored, 43 seconds later.

A few minutes after Gauthier was released from the sin bin, Ruzicka got called for roughing. And they showed the replay, and the only response I have to that is:

THAT was roughing?

Please.

And while Rosie was in the box for this laughable “roughing” penalty, Wilkes-Barre scored again. Two power play goals, courtesy of Frederic L’Ecuyer. Fortunately, not two minutes later, Powe scored to bring the game to 2-1, an even-strength goal. See, Penguins fans – the Phantoms didn’t need L’Ecuyer’s favors in order to score that one.

At the end of the period, a Penguin got called for high sticking. Can you imagine? The Phantoms getting a power play? Well, lopsided officiating is one thing, but even L’Ecuyer couldn’t call a game with only one infraction against the Pens, could he? Thanks for the gift, jerk. It spanned into the second period, where the Phantoms capitalized. 2-2 game.

What happened next, though, I cannot blame on L’Ecuyer. 8 seconds passed and Wilkes-Barre scored. Munroe had gone to sleep. I have no idea what happened; I am still completely speechless. W-B/S’s Stone shot from out near the blue line and he had no traffic whatsoever. There was a shooting lane as wide as I-95 near the airport, and Munroe should have had sight of the puck the entire way, plus a hundred years to get into position. YOU SIMPLY DO NOT MISS THAT KIND OF SHOT. Maybe it still goes into the net, but you at the very least get a piece of it. Munroe got nothing of it. It whizzed past him, undisturbed. It was a pathetic goal, and Munroe knows it. Awful. Awful.

The second half of the second period was tweet, tweet, tweet, for the Phantoms at least. Gauthier for “holding.” Kane for “hooking.” Penguin Wallace for “tripping.” (Another oh-I-better-make-a-call-in-favor-of-Philly penalty.) Kalinski for “cross-checking.” Grant for “slashing.” Eight minutes of penalties for the Phantoms in the second period to two minutes for the Penguins, with a host of non-calls against them. Five goals were scored by the Penguins in the second, two of them PP goals, and another for the Phantoms (after Ross’s early PP goal). I am not shocked the Phantoms couldn’t score more than that, because they spent so much time on the PK and you know it’s difficult to get anything going when you’re having to fight the referee’s bad decisions so much of the time. Munroe was pulled after the Pens had scored 5 goals. He had let in another weak one, and it was time for Teslak to come in. I don’t really think Munroe was pulled because he was playing so awfully (though that one goal really was sickening); I think they just needed a cooler head. And I didn’t feel any worse about things by having Teslak go in; the game was already out of hand. I simply was stunned that I was having to watch this kind of crap refereeing again. There was no attempt whatsoever to be reasonable. Nothing made sense. Random taps called as hooking, while Willkes-Barre’s goalie Curry interfered outrageously behind the net – nothing. Yet then Powe rammed Curry into the boards on a play behind the net, crushing him – and no call? Granted, I don’t think it should have been a call anyway, but given L’Ecuyer’s track record of making borderline calls, that seems like something that would be given top billing. Ok, so Curry can be crushed (with no retaliation by Wilkes-Barre??) but then ten seconds later, some Phantom is going in for imaginary hooking or whatever. I don’t get it. I really, really don’t get it.

There was a great deal of trash going on, too, outside of all the penalties. Wilkes-Barre numerous times tried to make illegal line changes, and probably should have been charged with delay-of-game penalties after the first one or two of them. They must teach diving early in the Penguins’ system, too, because it’s been a while since I’ve seen such disrespectful embellishing. Who was it, toward center ice, that got hit and went down and stayed down on his knees for a shameful amount of time, be escorted back to the bench, and then not miss a shift? Just one example of the diving that was going on out there; you’d have thought it was an Olympic event.

It was after 8:30 when the second period finally ended. It was around 9 p.m. when the third period got underway. I was thinking it would be midnight before I got home because there was absolutely no flow to the game whatsoever, L’Ecuyer was blowing whistles and stopping play every chance he could get, and the game time was stretching comically long. I actually considered leaving after the second. Everything had shown itself to be nothing more than a burlesque, not a hockey game, nothing worth watching. The score was 7-3. The only thing that kept me there (beyond a sense of loyalty to my poor team) was the memory of the comeback win against Wilkes-Barre three years ago. I know the chances of something like that happening again are slim – but slim is still something, right?

Third period charade: Grant, “slashing.” It was the only penalty for the first half of the period, which was amazing. And then the thing boiled over. Midway through the third, Ruzicka hit a Penguin high and late behind the goal, near the corner. It was definitely a penalty, because it was definitely extremely late. (I still liked the hit, though.) Tweet, two minutes for roughing. As Ruzicka skated toward the penalty box, he clotheslined a Penguin that crossed his path. He made no attempt to avoid the Penguin whatsoever, and knocked him to the ice. Feeling bloodthirsty, I approved and so did everyone else. Rosie sat in the box and was assessed the two for roughing, and then was slapped with a ten minute misconduct – I don’t know what for, perhaps the blatant throw-down of the Penguin who’d gotten in his way. So he got up and was leaving the box, heading toward the Phantoms’ bench/tunnel. For some reason, a linesman made a beeline for him, intercepted him, and grabbed his arm.

Ruzicka dumped him to the ice, too.

It wasn’t an accident. He made sure the linesman went down. I stared, a little bit shocked that I had just seen that deliberate abuse of official, but, like everyone else in the arena, yelled that he had gotten the wrong one.

Yeah, Rosie got another ten minutes for that.

Wilkes-Barre scored just as Rosie’s original two minutes concluded, to draw them to eight goals on the night. I was as far beyond angry as could be, on into numb territory, as far as reactions to W-B/S goals were concerned. Their fans were all standing, applauding, which was disgusting to me. The whole game was a complete embarrassment. Their players behaved pathetically, the refereeing was largely responsible for the outcome of the game, and here the Penguins fans were cheering as though their team had had a clean, hard-fought win? Please. Go home and get a good look at reality. The Phantoms never had a chance, even though they did manage another goal in the third to finish with four. When one opponent is screwed from the get-go by constant and heavily-slanted TWEET TWEET action (and that TWEET TWEET action is simply not warranted!), it is no honorable way to win a game.

I suppose this is the playoffs, and honor be damned, right?

The Phantoms are now down 3 games to 1. Had they played better Monday night, it would be 2-2, but they weren’t even allowed a chance to recover from the bad game Monday. Going back to Wilkes-Barre tomorrow night, with the season on the line – I am outraged that it may be possible that the last Phantoms game I see this season might be that thing that I saw last night. I was so angry that I was quivering. That is no way to feel at a hockey game. If the Phantoms are going to have to lose, at least let it be at the conclusion of an intense game with good battles, flow, smart plays, real hockey. Not this kind of sham.

I want the Phantoms to persevere in the face of the zebra adversity, come out and beat this shameful Penguins team Friday, and come back to Philadelphia Saturday with a mission. Take the Flyers’ slogan and make it yours, too. Vengeance now, boys.

P.S. Mr. Frederic L’Ecuyer, you are an absolute disgrace to the profession, a vulgar spectacle of an official. You are a joke -- a completely unfunny, unbelievable joke. Go to hell.

Tonight's Game 4 for the Phantoms/Baby Pens ... at the Wachovia Center.

Let's go, Phantoms! Tie up this series! (Among the myriad of reasons that I want the Phantoms to win is the fact that I want to be able to tell my dad that we're going to a game on Saturday, and not have to wait until Friday night's decision. Plus, I want having driven up to Philly to see them play to be worth not being able to go running after work in this absolutely stunning weather. WOOOO PHANTOMS WIN TONIGHT WIN!!!!!)

If the Phantoms had played even half the game the way they did the last ten minutes of the game last night, they would have won. Instead, they sleep-walked through 50 minutes of a hockey game and it burned them. 3-0 until Ruzicka scored with half the third to go; Kalinski snuck one in (literally) before the announcements of Ruzicka's goal had even been finished, and it was 3-2, but the Phantoms had not given themselves enough time to pull out the equalizer. All I could wonder was, where was all that intensity earlier? Playing 10 minutes of real hockey just isn't going to be enough these days.

Here is your indication of how the game went:

Period 1: 2 shots on goal.
Period 2: 5 shots on goal.
Period 3: 17 shots on goal.

After Period 1, the Penguins had more goals scored than Phantoms had had shots.

Bah.

I haven’t got much to say for myself except that I am extremely happy to have had my initial expectations about this series quashed. ....

.... but given the way the Flyers had been playing, quashing my expectations, I was very disappointed in the Flyers after getting down 3-1 in Saturday’s game. My disappointment was such that I seethed on the couch and lamented having bailed on other possible plans in order to sit on the couch and watch the Flyers blow yet another close-out Game 5. Montreal was finally looking like the better team, and Biron – well, he looked like the Biron I used to curse about during the regular season.

Then, K. started watching the game, and his usual (and very eerie) influence kicked in. He texted me to say that as soon as he turned on the game, the Flyers scored three goals. They did that in three minutes and took over the lead in the only game in this series in which they had fallen behind. Suddenly, the game was worth having skipped things for. I was so excited that I couldn’t even sit on the sofa like a normal person, I had to sit on the edge of the arm (so basically I was standing).

Then, two things happened. 1) K. reportedly left off watching the game to go to a movie and 2) B., Dr. “Oh, the hockey gods don’t care about me”, randomly showed up and as soon as he came upstairs: Montreal scored to tie the game.

Look, people. When things are working the way they are, you don’t go around changing them. K. – you don’t leave!! B. – the hockey gods DO care!!

(Yes, I’m a scientist. Why do you ask?)

Anyway, enough of that. I really was disappointed in the Flyers and was even a little mad, though not actually surprised. I’d spoken with my dad before the game and told him that I wouldn’t be shocked if the Flyers threw a clunker and had to go to Game 6 (or, hockey gods forbid, Game 7). But I couldn’t stand watching Biron give up goals that to now he was saving in awesome fashion, and seeing that Carey Price had regained some of his form. I also couldn’t stand watching Danny Briere pointlessly fumble the puck while being completely unforced, like some kind of amateur. I couldn’t stand that I was watching the opposite of what I had been seeing. So perhaps you can understand why I was so excited that I couldn’t even sit on the sofa properly, when the jubilation and adoration of my team returned all in a rush, when they finally got their stuff back together and got into Price’s head again. Even when Montreal scored the tying goal, I didn’t believe the Flyers out of it. There was nearly an entire third period left to play, and instead of thinking “That’s nearly an entire third period in which Montreal can score a game-winner” I thought “That’s nearly an entire third period in which the Flyers have a chance to score the game-winner.”

And the game-winner came from Scottie Upshall, tipping in a shot by Jeff Carter, a shot that beat Carey Price cleanly. He didn’t have a chance. It wasn’t an issue of having gotten into his head and he let up a softie there – if he can take any consolation from it. It was simply going to be impossible. Seeing that I really like Scottie Upshall and what he brings to the Flyers’ table, I loved that it was he that scored the game-winner. However, you know, after the fact, I list the three that I would have loved to score the winner, in order:

1) Danny Briere. Come on, you see the beauty in the traitor scoring the goal that means the Canadiens’ season is over, don’t you?

2) R. J. Umberger. He scored two in the game, wouldn’t it have been excellent for his hat trick goal to have been the game-winner??

3) Scottie Upshall – for the reason I said. One of my favorite Flyers.

So, the Flyers are in the Eastern Conference Final for the first time since 2004, and, hockey gods willing, it will not end the way that one did (i.e. the other team going to the Cup final). Because the Penguins finished off the Rangers yesterday*, it will be a Battle of Pennsylvania for the conference championship. I think it’s going to be nasty. It starts later this week.

The Phantoms played Game 1 away at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Thursday night, and won it handily, 5-2. They played again Saturday night, and seemed to have the game handily won again, up 4-1 in the third. But every time I re-checked the score, the baby Pens were encroaching. In the last minute, the game was tied at 4. What, the hockey gods could only let one Philadelphia team enjoy success Saturday night? Must be so, because the baby Pens won in OT. I have not read much about the game so I don’t know what happened in the third period to allow this comeback, but it’s frustrating. Tonight is Game 3 at home, and in …. about an hour and a half I will be heading northward to attend. I expect a rough game, but I expect the Phantoms to win. How about that? I love expecting my team(s) to win – but it does make a loss all that much more difficult to tolerate. So, boys, just don’t lose and we’ll all be that much happier.

*I was extremely tired while this game was on, and I had my eyes closed during most of it – but I was listening, cracking a lid every now and then when Doc Emerick got extra worked up. When the Penguins were up 2-0 I figured that was going to be that, and was annoyed with the Rangers for not at least making it tough for the stupid Penguins. But then in the third period, some random dude for the Rangers scored. Seriously, when the goal was announced as having been scored by Korpikoski, I said, “Who?!” Some guy called up from Hartford, who are no longer in the AHL playoffs, some guy who had played something like a minute EVER, and scored on his second shot in the NHL EVER. That charged up the Rangers, and rather immediately they scored again – Nigel Dawes, tying the game. It eventually went to overtime, with the Rangers on the PK, which meant they couldn’t really get anything going, and the Penguins took the momentum and got a goal by their rental Hossa (penalty over) to eliminate the Rags from the playoffs, and to advance to meet Philly in the ECF. I was partially relieved to see atrocious refereeing in a game that didn’t involve the Flyers (so that I could be assured it’s not JUST the Flyers that incur it), but it doesn’t really make it much better, does it, just because it happens somewhere else too? Chris Drury was hit in the face with a high stick (requiring stitches?), and no call was made. Yet late in the game, he was called for a high stick that drew blood – the one that bridged the third period and the first OT. Huh, a blatant infraction committed by Pittsburgh went unnoticed by all on-ice officials, yet when a Ranger did the same thing, it got called? Unbelievable!!!!!!!

The officiating was still not very good last night, but at least it wasn’t as obviously disgusting as it has been. You get a boarding call early against Mike Richards – clearly the world’s softest, most gentle boarding penalty in the history of the sport – and a blatant non-call when Kovalev tried to remove Umberger’s knee, but then you also get an interference call very late in a tie game that gives the Flyers a power play chance to go ahead – and they do. Still, I wouldn’t call Begin’s interference call a make-up call; you basically force the referee into making a call when you throw a player, long after the puck is gone, into the wall by your bench, narrowly missing the door jamb where he could have been seriously injured. The referees missed Kovalev’s knee, but this was not something they could really overlook. It was a legitimate penalty, legitimately called, whatever Carbonneau wants you to believe. So you did it to yourselves, Canandiens – Begin did it to you. Don’t even try to tell us the refereeing went our way last night, when you did that 100% on your own. Look no farther than Steve Begin.

And the rest of the game was 100% on your own, too. You can’t blame the officials for your inability to get the puck past Marty Biron. Or for your inability to get a good pass or shot. You got your lame power play chances and got away with things that in the regular season definitely would have been called. You just didn’t capitalize when you could have, meaning that you had to scrape up two goals in the third period (37 seconds apart – my jaw was on the floor) and be glad that you at least got those, when you could have had five, or six but blew it by shooting wide, by missing a pass.

The Flyers did not play the first period very well last night, and I think they knew that, because they came out in the second and third a changed team (compared to the first 20 minutes). They kept the puck in the offensive zone a little more, rather than let Montreal wander around with it at will in front of Biron. And I literally cannot believe Martin Biron. Where did this guy come from? There were flashes of this excellence during the season, and he did start the year quite well, but never this extended, non-stop stretch of sheer brilliance. I have read Canadiens fans complaining that without Biron, the Flyers wouldn’t be anywhere near where they are. That the game’s score would be 9-0 without him. Uh, right? Last I knew, Biron was part of the team … and, let’s face it, Habs fans, it’s not Biron that’s doing the scoring for the Flyers. Others (e.g. Umberger) are putting the puck into the other net, while Biron’s keeping it out of theirs. It’s a good system. Pretty simple, too. Don’t you think? Timely scoring, great goaltending. That’s what it takes, and right now, the Flyers have it.

And that R. J. Umberger = Habs killer. Is it a given that he’s going to score a goal against them? I loved at the end, when he and Carter were rushing toward the Canadiens’ empty net, and Carter was gesturing for Umberger to take the shot, rather than to have him pass. Umberger missed, but the puck came around the back of the net, and again, rather than take the empty-netter for himself, Carter let Umberger put it in. It was probably the most complicated and difficult empty-net goal I’ve seen, but it worked, and the Flyers won 4-2.

Note that the third goal, the one that won the game, was by Danny Briere, and I have to say that I love how the traitor continues to stick it to those who boo him. Every goal he pots, I can feel it needling them. I know the feeling; similar to the one that came when Ovechkin scored the game-winner in Game 1 of the last series. The “of course it’s him, ARRRRRGH anyone but him!!” feeling.

I love the Flyers so much right now, even through their minute-long collapse in the third that let Montreal back in – because they picked themselves back up and yanked the game back for themselves. One more game now, and it’s on to Pittsburgh. We all know what happened last series when the Flyers got up 3-1, so I won’t take anything for granted, but I think this team has a better sense of itself and how to win these games than they did last series. Look, they have yet to trail during a game in this series. The only time the Canadiens have been ahead was when they won Game 1 in OT. Otherwise, the game has either been tied or the Flyers have been winning. One more game of this and it’s good.

And lest you forget, the Flyers have Randy Jones. Randy Freaking Jones leads the NHL playoffs in plus/minus. Not someone like Lidstrom. RANDY. FREAKING. JONES. I will say that I have not, lately, said his name in disgust watching him make a bad play. Because he hasn’t really made a bad play lately. Huh. You know, he autographed my Flyers scarf. Maybe I’m not so ashamed of that anymore? And while I am on the topic of defensemen:

Zhitnik for Coburn. Thank you, Atlanta.

Coburn/Timonen on the ice and I relax. I literally have no worries when they are out there. Their calm and poise and puck control … tell me that you don’t relax too.

Ok, so Saturday. Price back in net, you think? By gambling on Halak last night, I think Carbonneau has messed up his goalies. I don’t think that the game will be a cake walk regardless of who is in net, or his state of mind, but if you’ve got a messed-up goalie ….

We shall see. LET’S GO FLYERS. You realize that if not for the bogus kneeing penalty on Richards in Game 1, this series would likely have been over last night? Sometimes, I really like it when my expectations turn out to be way off base.* That’s happened a couple/three times lately, and I have to say that it’s really quite sweet.

--------

Tonight’s Phantoms vs. Penguins away. I was considering watching on B2 but I don’t think I’m going to be around. Good luck, Phantoms. I have dreams of cupS. The one you can win, included.

*Please no jinx. It’s true that I didn’t expect what has happened to now; I’m not making any statements about anything else. Really.