07-08 Philadelphia Flyers Season Thread

[ice grillin you]

Yeah, but now I hope they didn't just take all the momentum with that win and the Flyers come out defeated the next couple of games.

did you even watch the last series?

thata rhetorical johnson right?


i watched this travesty on dvr until 2am...btwn caps game one and last night can you have two worse losses within two weeks of each ever?...im literally sick to my stomach still...biron lost this game on the canadians second goal...you just cant give up shtein like that in the playoffs much less against the number seed...he was pretty bad on the last goal too with that rebound


and sun and sb now that its the next morning and your flyer glasses are on the nightstand please watch the richards call again....not only was it a blatant knee and a penalty but it was a very dangerous play that can really hurt someone and blow a knee out with the quickness...it was easily as much a penalty as poti's trip in OT

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Richards has never committed a legitimate penalty.  Ever.

farging refs.

[SD_Eagle5]

Clement went on and on about Richards using his shoulder but I thought it was pretty obvious from the replay he got knee on knee too. That call was a no-brainer.

[ice grillin you]

Clement went on and on about Richards using his shoulder but I thought it was pretty obvious from the replay he got knee on knee too. That call was a no-brainer.

not just the knee on knee but kovalev was about to walk around him in the offensive zone...richards reaction to stopping him was throw his leg out...not saying it wasnt a penalty at any spot on the ice but had it been in the flyers offensive zone perhaps they could have gotten away with it

[reese125]

you both are wrong


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLOl1_fx4FY

take a look one more time real close. He clearly comes down and leads up with his shoulder. He did not lead with knee--then it would of been a penalty. Kovalev's oscar is already in the mail.

[SunMo]

the shoulder and knee pretty much make contact at the same time

[SD_Eagle5]

the shoulder and knee pretty much make contact at the same time

yup...and what the ref sees is a star player going down while Richards was obviously beat. Like I said earlier that call was a no-brainer

[Seabiscuit36]

Still angry... From the one side angle where the ref was that called it, it looks like a knee, from head on, its shoulder with his knee leaning it but he's not leading with his knee.  The ref made a reaction based on what he saw.  IGY, whats your opinion on the Kovalev goal?

[ice grillin you]

its tripping/kneeing 101...the shoulder is irrelevant...once you stick your leg out like that youre done

[Seabiscuit36]

lol, VanMassenhoven told biron the puck went off his helmet on the kovalev high stick...lol

and for anyone who likes to read Bill Meltzer

I have always believed that officials don't cost or hand wins to teams. Teams put themselves in position to be at the mercy of judgment calls. Sometimes those calls are unfavorable. Sometimes they're downright mystifying and infuriating.

But they're also beyond the players' and coaches' control, and it's never an acceptable excuse for losing.

On last night's two controversial plays in the Flyers-Canadiens game, I believe that the officials made the wrong call on both the Alexei Kovalev shorthanded goal and the Mike Richards kneeing penalty. But I don't for one second think that's why the Flyers ultimately lost in overtime.

Let's work backwards. On the Richards play, one television angle showed that Richards' knee never made contact with Kovalev and it was, in fact, a clean shoulder check that sent the Canadiens' forward to the ice.

But from the other side, where referee Don Van Massenhoven viewed the trip (and replays also show that he only looked up at the end of the play), it looked an awful lot like Richards' leg was what caught Kovalev. Don't forget, too, that the call is made on the spot. Penalties aren't reviewable.

Even so, it was the wrong call. It set up a situation where the Flyers were victimized by sheer bad luck. Jeff Carter's stick snapped on the faceoff and Saku Koivu got the puck directly to Kovalev in sniping position at the top of the circle. But the Flyers had also been the beneficiaries of plenty of good luck and favorable bounces during the game. Those things even out.

The Kovalev shorthanded goal that tied the game 2-2 was less defensible from an officiating standpoint. Allegedly, the replay officials in Toronto saw an angle that showed Kovalev played the puck below the crossbar. Well, I'd sure like to see the replay from that angle, as would a lot of other folks.

From every other angle, it looked like the blade of Kovalev's stick caught the puck and then made contact with the crossbar on the way down. Unless that was an optical illusion, there's no possible way he could have played the puck legally into the net.

But here's the thing, Flyers fans. The whole sequence started with a sloppy turnover by the Flyers, creating a counterattack opportunity by the penalty killers. The initial shot by Plekanec was a harmless side-angle attempt that Martin Biron should have handled cleanly, but didn't.

The officials didn't create that scoring chance. They didn't grease Martin Biron's glove. They didn't kick the puck to Sergei Kostitsyn on the Jeff Carter turnover that led to Andrei Kostitsyn cutting the gap to 2-1. Don Van Massenhoven didn't cause Carter's stick to break, he didn't turn the puck over twice in overtime and he didn't leave out two fat rebounds that weren't cleared. The referee also didn't score the overtime winner. Tom Kostopoulos did.

This game was a tough one for the Flyers to lose, and it's to the credit of John Stevens and his players that no one was whining about the officiating afterwards. That's a loser's lament. The Flyers have a game to win on Saturday.

[SD_Eagle5]

That puck was definitely hit with a high stick but it was going in anyway and its not the refs fault the Flyers can't protect their own zone with the man advantage in the friggen playoffs.

[Seabiscuit36]

Thats the thing, if it goes in no highstick its a goal, but it was hit with one, and Toronto farged that up royally. 

[ice grillin you]

yeah high stick...problem was it was a weird play all around and was tough to reverse...i thought it was actually a lot tougher call than the caps high stick (cant recall the player fehr?) non call that went against the flyers


bottom line is refereeing rarely ever decides a game and it ebbs and flows...shtein the flyers got a two minute two man advantage and an ovetime pp in a game 7 so really they cant complain about anything...but even if you think the richards call was crap the flyes are still to blame for not being able to kill 30 seconds of penalty time...

[Seabiscuit36]

that was Laich. 

The flyers farged themselves, but they played an amazing 3rd period, and for that call to tie it up was tough to take. 

[Cerevant]

...but even if you think the richards call was crap the flyes are still to blame for not being able to kill 30 seconds of penalty time...

This.