But yesterday, the slogan lost a word, and it is an important one. "Why Us?" became the theme of the day over the airwaves and, I suspect, in the newspapers today, which is unfortunate. Because the Flyers weren't whining as much yesterday as they were honestly answering the questions put to them. And for every jab at calls made or not made in their series against Pittsburgh were four or five lengthy and well-thought admissions that they have been victimized more by their own mistakes than any penalty called or missed.
To their credit, fans resisted the urge yesterday to name officiating as the primary reason for the Flyers' dilemma in the "Daily News Live" poll, listing it near the bottom, just ahead of injuries. Unfortunately, the network carrying that poll could not resist that urge, mostly because it fit nicely into a tease for the 6:30 "SportsNite," but also because it made for a more juicy story.
As is often the case this time of year, distortion merges with perception for the sake of a good story, as I relearned last round in asking if nationalism was affecting objective officiating after a lopsided number of penalties were called against the Flyers over the first three games of their series with Montreal.
This series is different, though, at least in the Flyers' view. Sure, Briere was still miffed that an Evgeni Malkin elbow off the puck was not called, but he also said, "In the first game, I thought the referees did a marvelous job. And we still didn't win." And when someone tried to bait him into a discussion of the Penguins drawing penalties through theatrics, he said - with a wry smile - "We have some guys who can embellish a little, so it goes both ways."
