WIPblog By Joseph Santoliquito- The Flyers Aren?t Playing By The Script
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We’re all familiar with the pratfalls, the acrobatics, fake chair slams and the faux punches of pro wrestling. At some time or another in your life, you watched.
You watched knowing the scripted ending would come. You hoped against hope that the bad guy wouldn’t pull out the foreign object and gouge the poor good guy in the head while the ref plays along and watches the good guy get pinned.
That’s pretty much what the first three games of the NHL Eastern Conference semifinal series seems like between the Flyers and the Montreal Canadiens—only in reverse. The perceived “Bad Guys” in this male soap opera are the Flyers, and the supposed white hats are being worn by Les Habs.
It’s pro wrestling.
Kimmo Timonen gets nailed in the face in Game 2 and no call. The refs seemingly looking the other way. Were they kidding us? All that was missing there were hidden brass knuckles. The cheap shot was even applauded by Canadiens manager, uh, coach, Guy Carbonneau as something righteous and deserved.
The Flyers’ Derian Hatcher gets slammed with a 5-minute major for excessive boarding Monday night in Game 3—while in the same instance Montreal’s Tomas Plekanec takes a whack at the Flyers’ R.J. Umberger, who has to be helped off the ice.
That’s pro wrestling on skates at it’s finest—one guy gets banished while the other gets rammed. For the NHL to permit this one-sided travesty to continue is an utter joke, and will continue to perpetuate the NHL as a joke of a league.
You don’t have to be ignorant to figure what appears to be happening here.
No likes a scripted ending. Even one so forced as this. To the Flyers’ credit, they haven’t played along with the script. So far they refuse to—though they, their coaches, and certainly Flyers President Ed Snider are being tested. You just know Snider is about to burst at another bogus call, at another high-stick goal, at another boarding penalty that doesn’t warrant a 5-minute major.
The Flyers hold a 2-1 lead in this series entering Game 4 Wednesday night, but we all know the Flyers should be up by a commanding 3-0. Did Mike Richards really commit that penalty in the waning minutes of Game 1?? Didn’t look like it to me.
It just seems the NHL is going out of its way to steer this series in Montreal’s favor any way it can. I can’t say for certain that a mandate was slipped somewhere to someone saying “Screw the Flyers.” It just appears that some calls are very, very debatable, and have gone against the orange-and-black during this series.
I don’t know.
But you get the sense the Flyers feel that way. You can almost imagine their eyes rolling collectively at another dubious call. You get the sense Flyers’ coach John Stevens would like to say something. But he won’t. Hatcher and Umberger would love to go off on the officials, but they, too, know better.
I suppose it’s why Stevens left it up to the media to comment on what appears to be going on here after Monday night’s game.
It’s why I have to give props to Flyers radio color guy Brian Propp. Propper unleashed unmercifully during the third period of Game 3, repeating numerous times that the Flyers were playing against two teams—the Habs and the officials.
To me, it looks that way. It looks scripted. It looks like pro wrestling, with the team doing all the right things to win being prevented to win.
Here’s some salt in the eyes and a drop kick the Flyers can break these invisible shackles and come through this sordid mess. For once, it would be a score for the good guys wearing black.
Go break a leg Carey Price.
Joseph Santoliquito is an Emmy Award-nominated writer based in the Philadelphia area who can be contacted at Jsantoliquito@yahoo.com.
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