Last year, the Philadelphia Flyers made a magical run through the post-season. They came back from a 3-0 deficit in Game 7 against the Boston Bruins in the second round, after coming back from 3-0 in that series. They ended up making it to Game 6 of the Stanley Cup, where they lost to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Last year, the Flyers had mediocre-at-best goaltending, where they mixed and matched with Brian Boucher and Michael Leighton. But, their defense was stellar. They blocked shots all day and night and kept their netminders relatively clean. So, the deficiency was pretty well masked.

This year, the goaltending and defense were far worse. Brian Boucher, Sergei Bobrovsky and Michael Leighton (Jonas Backlund’s name even came up for Christ’s sake) were yanked and started repeatedly as the Flyers just couldn’t get solid goaltending. They couldn’t overcome Boston’s 3-0 lead this year and were swept by a team that thoroughly outclassed them.

So, while it wasn’t just goaltending that was the problem, it was indeed a problem. And it hurts even worse to know that Boston goalie Tim Thomas, who was marvelous all year, could have been had in the offseason. Sure, he was 35-years old, had a $5 million salary and had lost his job to Tuukka Rask last year, but he had to have been better than what the Flyers had, right?

I was a bit worried about his high price tag, but I also wasn’t convinced that any of the guys from last year would get it done for a team that was built to win now. GM Paul Holmgren went out and acquired defense this offseason and I don’t blame him. Defense masked the goalie problems last year. But, at some point you need someone who can play. And Tim Thomas would have been an upgrade over Leighton, Boucher and a 22-year old Russian kid that doesn’t speak English.

No, I didn’t see Thomas’ insane, possible-Vezina-winning season coming. But the guy has been excellent in the past and Philly’s failure to trade for him (he wouldn’t have commanded much after the season he had) ended up costing them pretty big. Thomas was a wall against the Flyers in this series and Boucher and Bobrovsky (who wasn’t bad)….um, weren’t.

For next year, the team is going to have to sacrifice a guy like Jeff “I don’t show up in the playoffs” Carter for better goaltending. We’ll see what’s out there, but you can’t seriously go into a season with championship aspirations and tell the fan base that Boosh will be good enough.

Most observers of the Philadelphia Flyers didn’t expect to hear Michael Leighton’s name come up in this year’s playoffs unless there was an injury or both Brian Boucher and Sergei Bobrovsky took huge collective dumps in their crease. While Bobrovsky certainly hasn’t embarrassed himself through two games, he did get yanked in Game 2 and has now virtually fallen off the depth chart.

Head coach Peter Laviolette has announced the Brian Boucher will start Game 3 against the Buffalo Sabres, but Bob won’ be his backup. Nope, it’s Leighton, who was recalled a couple weeks ago and cleared re-entry waivers.

“Boosh will start in net,” Laviolette said. “Not company, my policy. That’s what I’ve done all. I’ve announced the starter. It’s Boosh.”

Why Boucher when the three goals really weren’t all on Bobrovsky?

“Brian came in last couple of times and has done a really nice job for us in there,” Laviolette said. “He’s on top of his game and in charge of his net. He bailed us out of a couple of situations and I really feel he deserves to go in there and play.”

So there you have it, but this doesn’t mean anything is set in stone past Game 3. You have three below-average goalies and it looks like Laviolette will use them like a bullpen and go with the hot hand. It’s what he’s done since he became the Flyers coach last season.

Last year, Michael Leighton helped the Philadelphia Flyers in their deep playoff run that ended in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup. Sure, he wasn’t great and their defense helped him a ton, but he was still their starter for most of it.

This season, Leighton’s hard work was rewarded with a one-way ticket to the Adirondacks to play for the Phantoms. And he’s helped them tremendously, with a 14-12-2 record with a 2.22 goals against-average and .926 save percentage.

With the Flyers current goaltenders – Brian Boucher and Sergei Bobrovsky – struggling, the team apparently would like to see what Leighton can do. They Flyers have placed Leighton on re-entry waivers, allowing every other NHL team to take a crack at him at half of his cap price, which is $1.55 million.

We could find out if Leighton is back on the team as soon as noon on Wednesday. The Flyers could desperately use goaltending help for the playoffs, we’ll see if he clears waivers.

The Philadelphia Flyers seem to be the new Phillies when talking about injuries. First, goalie Michael Leighton had some soreness in his back and he’d be okay. Then, he’d probably miss a month because it was a herniated disc. Now, he needs surgery and will be out 6-8 weeks, according to the team.

“The pain kind of jumped to a new level,” Leighton said Friday.

He said he originally injured the back last year and it’s been giving him some problems for a while.

“I feel bad for him because, for once, he had a chance to be a No. 1 somewhere,” center Danny Briere said after Friday’s practice. “But that’s the sad reality of hockey.”

Earlier reports were that Sergei Bobrovsky would be the new starting goalie, but that apparently was nonsense. The Flyers just announced that Brian Boucher would be the starter Saturday in St. Louis as they take on the Blues.

“Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette just announced that Brian Boucher gets the start tonight,” says a tweet from @NHLFlyers.

That makes perfect sense since Bobrovsky played well against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Initially, we were told that the injury to Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Michael Leighton wasn’t that serious. He had some soreness in his back, but he was supposed to be alright. Now, we find out that he’s go a bulging disc and he’ll miss about a month.

“We got a curveball thrown at us, too,” GM Paul Holmgren said.

Holmgren said that Leighton won’t need surgery at this point. He’ll opt instead for rest and rehab.

“My personal experience with bulging disks is they go back in eventually,” Holmgren said. “It’s not a herniated disc, which is a bigger issue in and of itself. It’s a bulging disk, and we think with strengthening and rehab and time that he’ll be OK. Right now we think that time period is a month just to let everything settle down. In goal, it’s a little more dicey than a regular player because of the way he’s bent over all the time in net.”

This isn’t good news for the Flyers. Leighton was already a Plan C option at goalie and they are paper thin at the position. Luckily, they have a tremendous defense that can mask the problem for a little while, but at some point, someone has to play competently between the pipes.

Not sure when that will be.

The Philadelphia Flyers had an amazing run through the playoffs and at times got some great goaltending from Brian Boucher and Michael Leighton. But, the bottom line is that they are backups who should not be starting on a team that has a Stanley Cup on the brain.

So, one would think that if the Flyers got the chance to sign the goalie who won the Stanley Cup, they’d go for it, right? Nope.

With Chicago Blackhawks goalie Antti Niemi on the open market after Chicago balked at the idea of paying him $2.75 million (which is what an arbitrator ruled was his worth). And, according to Flyers GM Paul Holmgren on Monday, the Flyers aren’t interested either.

We understand why they aren’t. Niemi is just not that great. But, what is a little concerning is the fact that Holmgren thinks he’s set with Leighton, Boucher and Johan Backlund. You can’t really be okay with that group on a team with Stanley Cup aspirations, right?

The Philadelphia Flyers have announced that Michael Leighton will start Game 6 in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks.

“Leighton will start Game 6,” the Flyers tweeted.

Leighton has been the starter ever since Brian Boucher went down during the Boston Bruins series. His numbers are filthy, but he is very scary to watch. OTR doesn’t understand this. We know he was your guy for a while, but Boucher is clearly doing the better job.

Yes, Leighton has made some incredible saves, but the easy ones are killers. He needs to close his damn five hole and recover quicker after making the initial save.

We think he’s on a very tight leash for Game 6. Still….Two Teams, One Cup.

Philadelphia Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette had a short answer this morning when he was asked about his starting goaltender for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks.

“I don’t comment on lineups,” Laviolette said.

Laviolette said that he’s already made up his mind who his starter will be for Game 6 Wednesday night, but that he hasn’t told the goalie yet. He was asked if he thinks more about the team or the goalie in this type of situation.

“Both,” he said. “Whatever is best for the team and whatever is going to give us the best chance to win one hockey game.”

We don’t really get Leighton. On one hand, his numbers are staggering in these playoffs and are damn near impossible to argue with. On the other hand, watch him play. His five hole is the size of the Courtney Love’s vagina, he gives up soft goals and his defense has been tremendous at blocking shots and keeping rebounds clean.

Brian Boucher may not be Patrick Roy in his prime, but he was clearly the more sound goaltender during Sunday night’s loss in Game 5. OTR likes that Boucher plays more under control than Leighton. He can make a save and stay in position (for the most part) to make another save if he has to. Leighton can make the first save, but there are serious problems if his defense doesn’t clear the rebound. One save and then he’s out of position.

To be honest, we don’t know that either of these guys are Stanley Cup goalies (they aren’t, but Trent Dilfer and Mark Rypien aren’t Super Bowl QB’s either). But it is what it is. These are the guys they have and they’ll have to try to win with them.

Many Philadelphia Flyers fans are excited about the play of Michael Leighton in net. Yes, he’s been pretty good, especially when you consider what would be expected out of a guy who was out of the NHL to start the year.

But has he really been that good? Or could he be benefitting from a tough defense led by Chris Pronger?

When Pronger was traded to the Oilers, they made a Cinderella run through the playoffs and all the way to the cup finals against Carolina behind goaltender Roloson. In game 1…Roloson was knocked out with an MCL injury and in came backup Jussi Markkanen. Markkanen posted a 2.17 GAA and pushed the series to seven games. Not bad for a backup goalie? Problem is, he didn’t stay in the NHL long and signed with Jokerit a year and a half later. So was it that he was a good goalie? Or did he have a hell of a defensemen in front of him like Pronger?

In 2007, Pronger was traded to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. The Ducks get to the Cup finals and face off against the Ottawa Senators. In the series, Jean-Sebastien Giguerre posts a 1.97 GAA and wins the Con Smyth Finals MVP award. Immediately following that “amazingly great goaltending” he signs a four-year deal. In the first year of that deal he goes 17-31-6. Where is he playing now? Toronto? He is still in the league, but is he as great as we all thought after that series? Or did he have a hell of a defenseman in front of him like Pronger?

In 2010, the Flyers acquire Pronger. Cinderella run into the Cup finals seeing the starting goaltender, Boucher, go down. Enter Michael Leighton who has played very well. But I caution you to honestly ask this question: Is he a great goaltender who is posting shutouts while standing on his head? Or does he have a hell of a defenseman in front of him like Pronger?

It’s easy to look at goalie stats and attribute them to high-end play, but sometimes (and most likely this time) it has way more to do with who is playing in front of you. Pronger should get a percentage of all these new goalie contracts.

We just had to keep it going with the Phildadelphia Flyers stuff. You may have noticed the Mike Richards video being posted here.

Ron Hextall was a great Flyer at one point. There was a time when he was absolutely unconscious. Is Michael Leighton the next Ron Hextall? Probably not, but he only needs to be Hex for about one more week. Do it, Leighton. Do it.

So here are some Ron Hextall highlights that someone set to Puff Daddy’s remake of the Led Zeppelin epic “Kashmir.” A couple of interesting notes on this. I actually spoke to the engineer who recorded Jimmy Page’s guitar parts for this version of the song. He recorded Page in Los Angeles while Page was in London. That’s right, most of these guitar parts were recorded via satellite. Oh the things they can do.

Also, guess who is playing bass on this track? Yep, it’s Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave (he’s also the Night Watchman, but who cares?).

Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Brian Boucher left the ice 13 days ago with two busted up knees. It was in the middle of Game 5 as the Flyers were desperately trying to come back from a 3-0 series deficit to the Boston Bruins.

Boucher was twisted under a pileup that saw him get a Grade 2 sprain on his left knee. The right knee was also injured and Boucher could barely make it off the ice.

But, Boucher was out there on the practice ice this morning, skating and working with goaltender coach Jeff Reese. While he’s not ready to come back just yet (and if/when he does, he’s not starting over Michael Leighton at this point), he’s farther along than anyone who watched his injury incident thought he’d be.

“It would be so good to get back in the locker room,” Boucher said. “It would be so good to get back with the guys. It really is so painful right now, being on the outside, looking in.”

“They never told me my season was done, and I’m not acting like it is.”

Boucher isn’t pushing it too hard, but he is getting a little bit of work and ice time.

“There was no going down, no taking shots,” he said. “The last 2 days, I took some shots but only in a really controlled setting. Every day so far, I’ve made progress. Each day, there haven’t been any setbacks.”

A team source tells Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer that the Philadelphia Flyers are interested in re-signing 29-year goalie Michael Leighton. Leighton has been phenomenal since taking over for Brian Boucher in the playoffs. He recorded shutouts in three of the last four games against the Montreal Canadiens.

The source said that Leighton, who becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, has become a top priority for the Flyers this offseason.

“Goalies sometimes develop later, and that seems to be the case with Michael,” the source said. “And he works so well with Jeff Reese,” the team’s goalie coach.

In the playoff, Leighton is 5-1 with a 1.37 goals-against average and .951 save percentage. That’s insane.

But, remember the Flyers have been burned numerous times by goalies who were hot in the playoffs, but couldn’t sustain their success in the following season. Think Brian Boucher (the first time), Roman Czechmanek, Marty Biron….the list goes on.

We think it’s easy to jump on the Leighton train right now, but buyer beware.

As if Ryan Miller didn’t kick enough ass in the Olympics for the United States Olympic hockey team, he kept it going yet again on Friday night as the Buffalo Sabres outlasted the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 in overtime.

For the Flyers, goalie Michael Leighton was excellent, stopping 32 of 35 shots. But when you are going against Miller, you might need to step it up a bit.

The Flyers did zippo at the trade deadline this week, and that includes not upgrading the goalie position. Leighton has actually been very good for the Phightins (that’s not their nickname) this season, going 14-7-2. But he’s given up seven goals in the last two games and if the Flyers hope to do anything this postseason (don’t count on it), they will need to ride him.

Ride him hard.

So oh yeah, back to Miller. He’s ummm….really good. Oh, and for anyone who cares, Tim Connolly scored the game-winner in overtime to sink the Flyers ship.

The Philadelphia Flyers are going to start Michael Leighton in goal tonight despite the fact that they’ve lost his last two starts. Still, he was pretty good in those starts and it’s not like the Flyers have Pelle Linbergh in his prime sitting on the bench. Tonight, look for the Flyers to take on the New Jersey Devils at home tonight as they take on the New Jersey Devils at home.

Leighton has a 9-7-1 record with a 2.89 GAA and .902 save percentage in 21 games this season

According to Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News, Michael Leighton will start the Winter Classic on New Year’s Day for the Philadelphia Flyers.

“Looks like Leighton will start the Winter Classic for the Flyers at Fenway. Pretty exciting time for him after the events of this month,” Alexander tweets.

Leighton has been out of his skull since stepping up for the Flyers in the absence of Brian Boucher and Ray Emery. He is 4-0-0 with a 1.79 GAA and .943 save percentage. It’s only a short period of time, but we’d imagine he’d be tough to sit right now.

It’s safe to say that if you are a hardcore fantasy hockey person, then you are a nerd.