Friday, April 25, 2008

Knee or No Knee...

That is the question being raised following game one of the Montreal/Philadelphia series. With the score at 3-2 Philadelphia late in the third period, the Flyers Mike Richards was called for what some are saying (mostly distraught Flyers fans) was a "questionable" kneeing call. Here are some pictures to state each side's case.

From this angle it looks as if the shoulder of Richards is laying the blow on Kovalev, causing him to spin out and fall.
I believe that the angle in that picture is deceiving. From the side angle, a picture taken at roughly the same time shows that Kovalev's shoulder is well past Richards' and the knee is delivering the blow.
Either way, the call was made and Richards was sent to the box for two. The Habs managed to score on the powerplay with their net empty. They went on to win it in overtime. When all is broken down, Flyers fans have no right to criticize the referees. It was close enough not to warrant a blown call, but just a discretionary call that happened to go against them. The fact is, the Flyers blew a 2-0 lead, and a 3-2 lead late. One of their goals went in off of a skate and could have easily been called back, so not every call was made against them, like some will make it sound . Here's the Youtube video for you to decide in real-time:

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obviously the ref made the good call.
Is Mike Richards trying to build himself a Sean Avery reputation?
Play a clean game buddy!
This kind of behavior lets the team down at the end.

Anonymous said...

Mike Richards said it himself it was a penalty if he says that you have to know.

Anonymous said...

Rule 71 Kneeing is the act of a player leading with his knee and in some cases extending his leg outwards to make contact with his
opponent.

Richards made contact with his shoulder and their knees also hit. Knee on knee is not the only requirement. To break rule 71, you must be LEADING with the knee or EXTENDING it. No, it should not have been called... Richards was turning and leaning towards the hit. He was LEADING with his shoulder. And, Richards knee that made of contact was not EXTENDER, it was directly below his shoulder. It can not be EXTENDED if his knee is under his shoulder. Kovalev tried to avoid the hit and leaving his knee extended.

Anonymous said...

OK Mr. flyers fan, you know the rules pretty well, good enough to be a referee. But did you really look at the video, i hope not cause if yes, you are rather blind or dumb, cause a shoulder hit can't make a 6,2 225 pounds man flip forwards. Anyways, the flyers ended-up winning the series due to a combination of bad refereeing and hugly goals. Thank you for your attention and be patient till next season

Unknown said...

I'm not gonna quote the rule book, but in the past there have been several hockey players that have had limited careers due to hits that occurred which are strikingly similar to this one. Also if the player who was penalized admits that it was a good call by the officials then theres not much point in disputing it further... Hunh??? Unless you are just feeling quarrelsome, eh?

Just my $0.02 worth