Flyers v Bruins and the men in stripes
Posted 7:59 PM ET | Comments 2
I have finally come to accept the "new nhl" rules.... I'm ok with it. The penalties in a game are always going to be second guessed... but the only thing i ask is that they call te same play for both teams... if the call the game even then fine. The thing that shocks me is how much the penalties are changing from game to game. Thursday night against Tampa, i thought that the men in stripes were missing calls up and down the ice, for both teams. But as long as they are being fair then that is fine. The problem then arises the next game when the team is playing with a more strict ref group, all of a sudden they are being penalized left and right. I think the league needs to take a further look at how the plays are being called from game to game... not just on the big plays but the small ones too. The league needs to find a better uniformity in their calls among all the refs making calls.
Onto the game talk. Man did the fly-guys need this win. Starting this 8 game road trip, i thought they needed to go 5w 3l or 4 and 4 to consider this a successfull road trip and prove that they are sticking around. Losing the first two in Florida really hurt the team's chance of coming home with a winning record from the trip. So this win in Boston was a HUGE lift. Now hopefully they will get Gagne and maybe even Scottie Upshall back for the game wednesday night in Montreal. Their speed will be a big help becuase Montreal likes to move the puck quickly.
As a flyers fan i am going to focus on two things coming out of this game. 1) the team won, and they rallied from a 1 goal deficit to do it. 2) Mike Richards is getting better by the day. The injury to Bergeron will most likely be the most publicized event from the game, and likely from the whole night of hockey, but let's just remember that thank goodness, it is not a spinal injury and he will be ok. I'm sure Randy will be up for review and i am interested in seeing what Campbell does with it.
Onto the game talk. Man did the fly-guys need this win. Starting this 8 game road trip, i thought they needed to go 5w 3l or 4 and 4 to consider this a successfull road trip and prove that they are sticking around. Losing the first two in Florida really hurt the team's chance of coming home with a winning record from the trip. So this win in Boston was a HUGE lift. Now hopefully they will get Gagne and maybe even Scottie Upshall back for the game wednesday night in Montreal. Their speed will be a big help becuase Montreal likes to move the puck quickly.
As a flyers fan i am going to focus on two things coming out of this game. 1) the team won, and they rallied from a 1 goal deficit to do it. 2) Mike Richards is getting better by the day. The injury to Bergeron will most likely be the most publicized event from the game, and likely from the whole night of hockey, but let's just remember that thank goodness, it is not a spinal injury and he will be ok. I'm sure Randy will be up for review and i am interested in seeing what Campbell does with it.
Nice post. I concur completely.Thankfully, Bergeron is okay. Two things about the hit: 1) players need to be aware and keep their head up along the boards -- for their own safety. 2) The league needs to come out with a precedent for dealing with hits from behind that cause injury, BEFORE suspending players for it. The game is too fast, and players cant read other players minds and cant be expected to react instantaneously the best way everytime. If the league sets a precedent that ANY hit from behind (including Volchenkov's hit last week) causing injury is an automatic 5 game suspension, for first offense; 10 for second offense, etc.... The players know the consequences beforehand, and may then become more accustom to puling up or steering to the side, and hopefully avoiding injury to a player with his head down along the boards. But, definetly, players have to keep aware and keep their heads up. This is hockey, its a fast, physical sport.
I'm frankly not optimistic about Upshall. I like his play on those rare occasions he's actually in the lineup, but this is his 3rd extended stint out in less than a season and it was injuries that played a role in his getting buried in Nashville.