Phigment

"Flyers and NHL follow me at http://twitter.com/BobHaynesJr"

United States, VA • United States •

Flyers - Lost Weekend

Well as I said before this past weekend could go a long way to determining the Flyers deals at the upcoming trade deadline. It looks like Hatcher is out for a month, as is Lupul, Gagne for at least that long, and now Downie is out with a "mild" concussion. I know this sounds like crybaby stuff, but when is the NHL going to protect the Flyers players within the rules like they do all the other teams in the league? Now none of the injuries above are a result of this, but how many times this year has a Flyers been cut, cross checked, elbowed, and all with no calls?

During the past two games against Montreal, I witnessed at least 10 incidents of blatant cross-checking, high sticks, elbows and all with no calls. If you want the worst incident see Jason Smith (with the puck) being high-sticked across the face that opened up a cut on his nose as well as breaking it. Horrible that there was no call. Later in the period Upshall was tripped TWICE in 10 seconds and the referee standing in the zone watched twice with no call. The referee at center ice finally called the 2nd one. Briere was cross-checked and head rammed into the ice after with the stick and no call on either. This is not even talking about the (at least) tenth time that a Flyer was boarded dangerously this season (Tolpeko) with no call. That his was vicious and the only reason that a 2 minute penalty was given was because Smith stepped in a fought the guilty party!

Not trying to be a conspiracy guy, but why can't a game be called as it happens? In both games the Number 1 Powerplay of Montreal had 3 attempts in the first 10 minutes. Then the even up calls for the Flyers come with 40 seconds left in a period which stretches over the intermission and makes the penalty easier to kill. In this situation, the opening face-off of the next period should take place in the offending teams zone.