Classic Preview: Painful

I'm not really sure what to say about last night's game. Was it an awesome game? Absolutely. It would've been a lot more awesome if the Bruins actually played the last 20 minutes of the game, but what can you do? Dennis Wideman was out for the third due to his super-human shot-blocking and penalty killing in the 1st (place your bets now: lower body pays out 3:1, broken foot pays out 5:1) so the D was shortened to 5, but that's still not much of an excuse for the Flyers having the puck in the attacking zone for most of the 3rd. There were just too many mistakes in that period.

On top of that, what the fuck was up with the refereeing? Who paid those refs off? They better not be the guys calling the Classic, cause there were about 8 bullshit calls, starting with Vladimir Sobotka's goal that was called dead. That was a goal. Period. The puck was clearly across the line before the goal came off its posts, and before the whistle was blown. The goal post wasn't knocked off until the puck hit the back of the net, and the whistle wasn't blown until the puck had circled the inside of the cage and was on its way out again. Vladi made sure the 2nd one counted, but the loss of that first goal was a blow to the team, and helped create a mind-set that the calls were not going to go their way.

"No goal" my ass.

Goal love = goal.

Add into that, Danny Briere under-arming David Krejci's stick and taking him for a ride and not getting called, Marc Savard getting smacked in the forehead with (I believe) Hartnell's high stick and not getting called (listen, say what you want, but something made his helmet move, and it wasn't his own glove because the helmet moved before he grabbed his face).

Can someone explain to me why the play was called dead when the Bruins sent Tim Thomas to the bench for a 6th attacker during the delayed call for the 5-on-3, giving the B's 6-on-4 once Savvy hopped the boards and came out. The B's sent it tape to tape 5 times in their own zone, and when Savvy touched the puck, the play was blown dead. What the fuck? The substitution player touching the puck is the only reason anyone can figure why the play was killed, that or the Flyers not attacking the play. But it makes no fucking sense. It was a game of blown calls.

But blown calls can't be used as excuses. It happens. All the time. Instead of evaluating the use of the trapezoid and head shots, the GMs and the powers-that-be in the NHL need to start evaluating refereeing, and the lack of consistency, especially in big games (which last night was not, I will admit), but if there's shitty refereeing in the Classic, against the Bruins, the blue-collar B's fans will rise up as one and riot, and force the NHL to evaluate the quality of game-calling.

My personal favourite moment of the game as watching David Krejci shake his glove like he was about to drop it and go after Danny Briere after Briere dropped his stick in the first, challenging Krejci. The look in Dave's eyes was one of ... well I've never seen him look like that, and I've seen all his games since he made the show. He had one fight in the Q (Rimouski, if you're keeping count, and that was v. Kyle Doucet), and one with the P-Bruins v. TJ Fox - two guys I've never heard of. Then again, I don't follow WC teams. So who's to say. But in 174 NHL games, Krejci hasn't had a single fight. Last night, Briere almost pushed him to breaking that record. I would love to see Krejc take on Briere. I'm pretty sure Krejc would make St Danny wear his ass as a hat.

So yeah, the Classic should be great. I'm willing to bet that it'll be the first classic with fighting and blood. And I'm also willing to go out on a limb and say, given the cold, and the physics of cold and glass... if Lucic can get enough velocity and speed, and catch him just right, Looch is going to knock either Hartnell or Pronger through the glass. Who wants in on that bet? Just remember, the colder the ambient temperature is, the tighter the skin cells become, and the higher the chances of the slightest contact causing a skin-split, and gushing blood, even from the smallest cut. This year's Classic has a high probability of being the most classic Classic to be played. It's definitely the biggest rivalry of the three played thusfar, because the Flyers and Bruins HATE each other. Let the blood-lust begin!

I'm gonna rip some stuff out of last night's game because of their interesting-ness, and post them up on YouTube in a bit. But here's one for the books: Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley ran into Lucic during the 2nd intermission, and he said this was the kind of game he was dying to play. Everyone keep their fingers crossed that Looch is raring to go on the 1st, because it won't be very Classic without Big Bad Looch.

It's beginning to look a lot like hockey!