Our House!

I gotta admit. I was very satisfied with the Philadelphia Flyers win last night. It is particularly satisfying considering everyone- and I mean everyone- had them dead & buried after the disaster in Buffalo. Don't you know you are never out of a hockey playoff series until you lose a home game? And as a result, the precious Cup could still come to Philadelphia!

But I was very satisfied by our avenging of Umberger. And you bet the fans let Buffalo know it. WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE! You know Dumont wants no more Philadelphia-style hospitality.

Now, you can’t credibly criticize the status quo when you are getting punished by it. So the Flyers' win was important- as it serves as my Antietam. Lincoln needed Antietam to push emancipation without it sounding desperate- and I needed last night’s victory to rip the officiating in the play-offs.

If the NHL’s intention was to inject the referees into this series, well, they are to be congratulated. Paul Devorski and Brad Meier were the two most important guys on the ice last night. Again.

I mean- do we really want cheap obstruction foul on Petr Nedved to be the determining factors in a glorious test of honor and stamina? A nasty game- decided because of diving penalty on Buffalo’s Roy with five minutes to go? I never understood why the NHL didn’t seen the pure entertainment value of sport featured in a semi-lawless New Jersey-Philadelphia, Montreal-Boston, Colorado-Detroit play-off series of the past few years- and consider carefully whether that was worth giving away to ensure Roy is punished for diving at the end of a close game? Man, if he isn’t diving- then he ain’t really trying, right? And the only reason he’s diving is that he thinks it might get called.

Don’t blame the referees- they look miserable and ashamed to part of this farce.