Zebra’s Helping The Cause
Usually, we’re blaming the refs for screwing us over. Sometimes we even have a valid point (Pronger getting caught up in the non-existent Avery rule). Last night, Nashville has a pretty good reason to be ticked of by the striped ones.
With the score knotted at 1, Nashville catches Bob down to his right, and they bang the puck into a gaping net. Except the refs immediately call it off on the basis of incidental contact with the goalie. Except every replay, from every angle imaginable shows Hornqvist barely touching Bob. And the contact did not prevent the goalie from moving across to make the save. He was down and out, with nobody to blame but himself. I mean, I’m happy that it favored the Flyers, but I don’t want these kinds of situations to exist. Since when do we have this bullshit call? If a guy accidentally bumps a goalie, or gets in a goalies way, too bad! When the hell did the NHL put an invisible fence around the netminders? This needs to be looked at ASAP, before more teams get screwed by this bullshit call.
Anyway, Flyers came away with the 3-2 victory. Amanda from Predlines has a nice recap of how it went down. Carter has looked awesome as of late, Leino was just keeping things big Ville style. There aren’t too many things more beautiful that when Jeff has a chance to let his wrist shot fly. And you would think teams know that he loves circling up the left boards, moving to the middle, and making goalies look foolish. Still, he managed to pull it off again last night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbXRct9sJdc
Leino had a pair, with his second being pretty sweet. How often do we see a spin-o-rama backhander, in a slot anymore? And the way he made Erat slide past him in desperation was pretty sweet too. Let’s not miss how awesome the pass by Giroux was.
Bob got the W, but I don’t think he was all that great. He gave up a massive rebound that I would have scored on for the first tally. He was totally caught out of net for the disallowed goal. The third goal he couldn’t do much about. There were a few other times that he didn’t smother the puck and was forced to make a second save. That’s exactly the kind of thing Nashville thrives on. They’re not an offensive powerhouse, so their scoring comes from capitalizing on opposing team’s mistakes. On the other hand, he robbed the Preds a few times, and kept us in a game that we didn’t exactly dominate. Nashville kept us penned in our zone for long stretches, and they had a few chances to light the lamp.
Also, it was Bob Clarke banner night. They presented hi with his old retired number banner from The Spectrum, and I think they re-raised the one hanging in WFC. And fans got a replica. Whoop-de-doo. I mean, yes, he’s arguably the best player in club history, but I think he’s been honored so many times, this wasn’t necessary. Or maybe I’m just such a huge Lindros fan that I’m still mad at Clarke for their falling out.
Next up, Dallas on Saturday. I wish we hated them in hockey like we do in football, that’d make this game more fun.
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