I don't go off on officials very much. But I have to admit to having some amount of skepticism about which game the veteran crew of Tim Peel and Kevin Pollock was watching Tuesday night in Columbus, Ohh-Hi-o.

The Flyers spent 14 minutes on the penalty kill in the second period against the Blue Jackets and still managed to not only to come out ahead in the period, 2-1, but to win the game, 3-1.

Peel and Pollock got snookered on some calls and outright blew some others. Like Derian Hatcher doing a terrific job to tie up Sergei Fedorov along the boards with a nice check only to see the Russian sans Ana, take a nose dive, thereby drawing a hooking call.

That penalty early in the game resulted in the Blue Jackets only power play goal. There were other far more serious grievances I had with the officials during a brutal second period stretch where the Flyers were hit with five, consecutive penalties leading to three, 2-man disadvantages.

Things like Hatcher using his stick to tap a guy across his rear end. Under the new rules, that's a legal stick check provided it is below the belt line. It was called cross checking. That became a five-on-three Columbus power play.

Or what about talented Nikolai Zherdev, trying to move around Mike Knuble off the rush? He totally faked Knuble out, but Zherdev went so wide to his left that he fell down. Knuble went right by three feet and yet got a hooking call. He never touched him. Another five-on-three.

"I think I've had it once in a game, but never in a period," said Flyer coach Ken Hitchcock about all those 5-on-3 power plays. "There was a lot of penalties tonight."

This remains a problem in the "new" NHL. Guys going down either on their own (diving) or simply slipping and falling, but still drawing an unwarranted power play advantage.

That the Flyers survived 7 of 8 Blue Jacket power plays with the 30th ranked penalty killers in the league, is in itself a stroke of outrageous good fortune.

But the real reason there was goalie Robert Esche. The saying goes, your goalie has to be your best penalty killer on some nights in the NHL.

The moody Esche, who had missed three games with a small tear in his right groin, was superb in net. Quite frankly, if you watched this game on the Center Ice package, you had to ask yourself: does Esche look like he's missed even a single period of hockey this season?

He was in rare form. He had a half-dozen quality saves in the second period that turned the momentum of the game into the Flyers' favor and silenced the Ohio crowd.

"I felt good, felt strong," Esche said. "Jimmy [McCrossin/trainer] did a great job getting me ready and getting me stronger. I got fortunate. They [pucks] just hit me. Some days they do and some days they don't."

Esche saved the two points as the banged up and very battered Flyers improved to 3-1-1 against the Western Conference this season.

That said, I still have issues with the way Peel and Pollock called the game. At least, their whistles didn't determine the outcome.

One more thing. Post-game parties outside Nationwide Arena are terrific. The fans are everywhere in the local bars and restaurants. It's one of the few arenas in the league where there are a variety of late-night establishments to keep fans (translation: $$$) in town and not in the suburbs.

Winter of Discontent for NHLPA

The nastiness between the NHL Players Association and the Trent Klatt-led dissident forces hit full bloom Tuesday in the Windy City during a showdown between the two groups that reportedly included angry verbal exchanges and threats of lawsuits.

The Klatt in the Hat simply won't become Green Eggs and Ham and disappear. These guys are in the for long haul and that means overthrowing NHLPA executive director Ted Saskin.

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