Konecny yelled at the ref, but Philly's sticks lost the game

Travis Konecny asked a referee if he'd lost his mind on a live mic Saturday, with an adjective in the middle that NBC's delay guy is still recovering from. Great clip. Wrong villain.

Look, the ref didn't cost Philly that game. The Flyers' sticks did.

The scene

First period, Flyers on the power play, Kotkaniemi in the box. Konecny gets called for hooking Jaccob Slavin, which turns a Philly power play into four-on-four. Konecny goes to the box asking the stripes about their mental health. Two minutes for him, one viral clip for everybody else.

Afterward he doubled down: "Just go watch some of them, and you will know my frustration."

Kid, I went and watched them. My frustration is different.

The receipts

Carolina scored two power-play goals Saturday. Both came off Flyers penalties nobody's arguing about. Matvei Michkov took a holding call 3:45 into the third, and Sebastian Aho buried the tying goal 74 seconds later. Then Owen Tippett slashed somebody in overtime, and Shayne Gostisbehere won it on the power play at 2:51.

That's not a conspiracy. That's a to-do list.

The Ferda number

The Flyers have been shorthanded 12 times in three games, by our count. Only Carolina, at 13, has been short more often. Philly has allowed four power-play goals and is 0-for-8 with the extra man. Three games is a small sample, sure. So is a house fire.

They're 0-1-2, and the home opener was a 7-0 loss to Pittsburgh. Seven. In a home opener. The guy running the fireworks had a busier night than anybody in orange.

Konecny's night, graded

He had an assist Saturday and he has two in three games, with four shots, playing about 16 minutes a night per NHL data. Fine. Not a crime.

But your best forward taking the penalty that kills your own power play, then auditioning for a Scorsese movie on the way to the box? Grade: C-minus. The minus is for the language. There are kids watching, pal.

Bruins tax

A Bruin does that in Boston and it's on a T-shirt by Tuesday. In Philly it's just Tuesday.

Buddy, I'm begging you

Keep the stick on the ice and the opinions in the room. The ref is going to call what he calls. He's not the one 0-for-8.

The read

The clip will get the views. The penalty column will get Philly beat. If the Flyers are still near the top of the league in trips to the box at Halloween, nobody's going to remember what Konecny said to a referee in October. They'll remember the standings.

I said what I said.