***my personal notes in parenthesis***
Flyers' captain Richards should have used a little restraint
BUFFALO - He should have known better.
In a game in which Dan Carcillo was punched in the face (actually, it was the chest) by a goalie (in the goalie's crease) and (acted like he was) pounded to the ice by a defenseman without retaliation (without an Oscar either, although it was Oscar-worthy,) a game in which so many of his teammates took numerous unreciprocated hits to the back trying to tie the game (ummmm, it is the playoffs, isn't it?), the captain should have known better than to throw an elbow at Patrick Kaleta along the boards in a one-goal contest on the road, at the end of a period in which the Flyers seemed on the precipice of turning things around.
"I thought maybe 2 minutes," Mike Richards said in the losing locker room last night. "To make a call like that, it's personal maybe. Not sure." (hmmmm, nothing personal, right David Booth?)
Personal? All the more reason not to do it. If Richards believed referee Francois St. Laurent had it out for him, then the elbow to the Sabres' agitator is only more puzzling. Maybe he thought Kaleta's reputation would allow it, the way countless extra shots have been allowed on Scott Hartnell and Carcillo in the four games so far (these two "angels" who've skated with a halo throughout the series thus-far.) Maybe he thought Kaleta would get one of those phantom calls that the Flyers' two agitators have received in this series, just for being on the wrong end of a stick shaft or a glove. (perhaps they could use a hug.)
"You never know what Kaleta is capable of," Kris Versteeg was saying (he of the classic soft-but-skilled perimeter game). "He's a dangerous player out there so you never know. He can run you from behind and he will hit you without the puck. (yeah, because Flyers never do any of that) It pretty much came down to 'Richie' protecting himself." (as well he should, he's definitely no Lady Byng candidate)
That was the company line (did you mean, WHINE?) all right, from the coach on down to the captain.
"It looked like he was getting run and got his arm up," said Peter Laviolette, while adding that he didn't get a clean look at the replay. But, said Laviolette, "I didn't see any intent there" to warrant a 5-minute major. (uh, right, maybe if you took off those orange and black glasses, coach)
General manager Paul Holmgren (he who would easily make the all-time Flyer goon list) also didn't see 5 minutes in the elbow, which caught Kaleta in the face, which he had been covering with a cage during practice.
Maybe that's why St. Laurent went over the top a bit. Yes, Kaleta is a known agitator, a guy who gets under the skin of his opponent. Richards has been known to do that as well. But amid a low-scoring series in which past Flyers miscreants (miscreants? really? how about keeping it simple like goons) like Hartnell and Carcillo have shown gritty maturity taking their licks (more like trying to play victim against the Sabres which is a silly notion to begin with) as they doggedly pursue pucks , the captain should not have put himself and his team in the position he put them in at the end of the second period last night. (maybe that's why all the Philly hulllabaloo over the call their captain, Mike Richards, did something blatantly stupid and now they're tryin to cover up for him)
Was 5 minutes a little - pardon the pun - over the top? Maybe it's personal, as Richards said. But the referee probably reads too, probably knew that Kaleta was wearing a cage during practice, probably knew he left Monday's game early and did not return after banging his head. (yup, that's exactly it, the ref felt sorry for Kaleta and was waiting for the exact moment where he could slyly show it)
Richards' best point is this: "I thought they got away with murder," because they did. (said with head down, hiding eyes like he was being asked where his lunch money was) First it was Hartnell picking up a matching penalty in Game 3 after being repeatedly crosschecked in the back. Last night it was Carcillo who, after nearly scoring, buzzed around the net too close for Ryan Miller's liking. Miller punched him in the face (no, it wasn't the face it was the chest, Carcillo acted like it was the face, the ref didn't bite) with his glove, Carcillo was subsequently thrown down by Sabres defenseman Mike Weber (either Carcillo was acting on that or he proved what a wuss he is getting rag-dolled like that) and the end result was matching roughing penalties for poor, old "Car bomb" (did you mean lady finger?) and the two-fisted goalie."I mean, I don't know what I did to deserve that penalty," Carcillo said afterward. (in the crease, a couple shots at Miller...DIVING!)
"That call on Carcillo there, he's getting killed every time," said Richards.
Richards wasn't playing that card for himself. He knows he gives as much as he gets. (perhaps he should inform Carcillo) He was upset with the length more than the call.
"I saw him take a couple of strides towards me," he said. "I had to protect myself." (yeah, brilliant. had you not tried to break his jaw, maybe the Flyers woulda been on a powerplay to open the third. Kaleta certainly woulda garnered two for stupidity)
But if the replay showed nothing else, it showed some exuberant self-defense. Maybe even frustration. (maybe even a sly player who thought he could get away with a dirty play, but instead got nabbed)
At the worst time.
The Flyers were amid their best stretch of pressure at the time, seemed on the verge of a huge third period. (yeah, maybe or they coulda continued to get stonewalled and did something stupid like Richards did) Instead they began it a man down for nearly 5 minutes, and it took another 5 minutes to build the kind of momentum they had finished the second with.
The captain didn't cost them the victory. (no he didn't, but it was a blatant elbow and downright stupid, especially for a captain) But he cost them valuable minutes. (and displayed what happens to the Flyers when they're frustrated) And in a series in which they have now been shut out twice, (thus the frustration) those minutes could become haunting. (not as haunting as being intimidated by the [snicker, snicker] Buffalo Sabres and whining about it to the referees)
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