Baby Steps

Put the Chara hit aside for a moment, which has everyone hyperventilating, and last night was a good step in the right direction for the Flyers last night. Second win in a row, after a fairly sleepy win over the atrocious Oilers.

More importantly, the Flyers were skating harder for the entire game. It was still a close game where the Flyers benefited from a garbage goal, but the Flyers generated more chances, hit a few posts, and looked a little more purposeful on the power play.

Individual player thoughts;

-Really could stuff from Carter, using his speed and size, and evidently filling a need the Flyers have really missed recently.

-Carcillo has likely earned his spot in the lineup for the time being, as there's no reason to take him out for Nodl or Zherdev.

-I'm not really pleased with Richards offensive zone play. Overhandling the puck, and constantly trying very low percentage diagonal passes, especially on the PP.

-No Pronger, and apparently he let loose after the Oilers win, not being satisfied. Apparently Giroux was one of his targets? Not sure. I wouldn't say Giroux was bad against the Oilers, though he did pass up many good shooting opportunities for bad passing decisions.

Chara

The Chara controversy is still boiling. Probably influenced by the fact that it happened in Montreal to a hometown player, the PM of Canada is commenting, Air Canada is making threats about abandoning the league, and there is an open police investigation.

People need to simmer down. My opinion of the hit hasn't changed since my last post, where I said Chara bears some responsibility for not better recognizing his surroundings and letting up, but there just isn't much evidence of intent on a freak occurrence. In particular, a criminal investigation where the police would have to show Chara did something well beyond the type of contact a hockey player accepts the risk for AND that Chara intended to injure, seems like a complete waste of time. Still, the NHL doesn't look good by giving him no suspension whatsoever, and Bettman makes d-bag comments responding to Air Canada.

As lawyers say, bad facts make bad law, ie if we attempt to tailor rules to a freak or unusual circumstance, the rule ultimately doesn't work very well when applied elsewhere down the road. The NHL has to take a hard look at many things revolving around league discipline, head injuries, and IMO Bettman's leadership for on-ice issues, but this is not a good hit to make a rallying cry around league actions for head injuries. That said, no one is happy with league discipline actions, and it should be addressed in a meaningful way in the offseason (IMO house cleaning of leadership positions, but that's a topic for another day).