1) The Offsides Call / Goal

That puck was not offsides. Its a terrible terrible terrible terrible job by the linesman of making the call, but it was the right call and he did everything he could to make it clear, emphatically waving and yelling that the play was good.

The puck popped up in the air and came down on the back end of the line. Popping up created the optical illusion that it was over the line (because you could see white ice between the puck and the blue). Aucoin uses white tape on his stick, which furthers the illusion. But its a great keep by Aucoin.

Two different images demonstrate this:

First, a screen cap of the freeze frame of the in game replay, this is the point when the puck is furthest out of the zone:

Second, Sportsnight brought a new angle which I took a photo of. This is also a freeze frame (not me trying to pause the DVR to get it, but CSN putting this image on the screen for a couple seconds):

The problem was that Richards, Captain of the team, stopped playing so he could argue, drifted out of position, and never got back to his position which is where the goal was scored from.

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2) Emery Overcommitting

For the last of screen cap theater, Ray Emery’s positioning. Early in the season there was talk about him not coming out of the net to cut down the angle. He made that correction. But last night and tonight goals were scored because he overcommitted to a cross ice pass.

I didn’t post this last night because there isn’t a good angle in the online highlights, but you can sort of see that he’s caught too far to the top side of the picture. Most of his body is out of the crease. He did this same thing, though to a lesser degree, on the shorthanded goal of the same variety in San Jose.

Now, here’s him doing an excellent job staying in control when the puck comes across the ice in the first period tonight. It was really hard to pick out watching the game, but after a bunch of replays I saw the play. Upshall cuts back against Emery’s movement, and because Emery doesn’t go flying across the crease, his trail leg is in position to rob Upshall:

Different story on the game winner, though:

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3) Game Killing Mistakes

Laperriere makes the same mistake Powe made last night not getting the puck deep. Its a less atrocious turnover (Lappy had a pass intercepted while Powe got caught from behind and stripped clean) but a bigger mental mistake since Laperriere’s came on the PK.

JVR with two awful mental mistakes in the third period. He takes the offensive zone interference penalty which led to the game winning goal. Then he goes offsides on the PP as Briere is easily carrying the puck into the zone.

Bartulis in the first panicked with the puck instead of making a smart play, throwing it from the corner up the boards into two Coyotes and turning it over. A shift or two later, he panicked with a puck Emery left behind the net and took a delay of game by throwing it out of play. The puck may have been on its edge when he got there, but it wasn’t the smartest play. He’s a hell of a lot steadier than Syvret back there, but he’s making some of the same mistakes, albeit less frequently. He’s a long way away from being confidence inspiring.

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4) Blair Betts Should Just Retire

The million dollar question was whether Blair Betts has separated or dislocated his shoulder. I’ll let the Mayo Clinic tell the difference:

A dislocated shoulder is an injury in which your upper arm bone pops out of the cup-shaped socket that’s part of your shoulder blade. A dislocated shoulder is a more extensive injury than a separated shoulder, which involves damage to ligaments of the joint where the top of your shoulder blade meets the end of your collarbone.

According to the Flyers website:

Flyers center Blair Betts will miss approximately four weeks after suffering a dislocated right shoulder during Philadelphia’s 3-1 loss in Phoenix on Saturday night. Betts tried to jump up off of the ice to glove an airborne puck when he got hurt, and immediately went to the locker room with his right arm limp in the first period.

It is the same injury that forced him to miss seven games earlier in the year.

He’s D-O-N-E done.

A dislocated shoulder just keeps getting easier and easier to do. (Think Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon.) I’ve had clients with chronic shoulder problems who will dislocate it just by getting out of a chair. He dislocated his shoulder just by jumping and reaching over his head. They absolutely cannot rely on him to be be physically fit. They have got to treat this as if Betts’ career is over and replace him. Any games they get out of him is a bonus.

1. It doesn’t matter if the call was correct or incorrect, its the delay and the confusion that caused the goal. Its like an infield fly in baseball. If the bases are loaded with no outs and there is a weak pop up to the pitcher, and the umpires start to signal infield fly by running out and putting their fists up- the base runners will run back to the bags before hearing the “infield fly call.” This makes it very easy for the pitcher to let the ball drop, throw home, then to third then to second for a triple play. Mario, I know your going to say my example is like comparing apples to oranges but think about it. Richie was looking exactly at the play, and saw the confusion of the linesman. Had he not have seen hit he would have kept his positioning, once the point man saw the opening between Richie and the slot, he attacked it. It is the referee’s job to stay out of the box score and the fact that you even have to defend him means that he didn’t do his job.
2. Emery didn’t have a great weekend, I’ll give you that but two west coast games in 24 hours he’s aloud to play sub par. Did he lose the games for us? No. Could he have played better? Yes.
3. Your number three is called game killing mistakes. Last time I checked going offsides is not a game killing mistake, and that is what you have JVR pegged for.
4. Although dislocating your shoulder becomes easier to do with each time you do it, the rehab is also much quicker. Think of a rubber band that isn’t supposed to stretch to a certain point. Once it does stretch that far (but not snap) it is more likely to do it again, but it also gets relatively “used” to it. If it is the same injury, he won’t be out as long. He’s only 29 years old.