Saturday, April 30, 2011
Posted: 8:46 p.m.
By Jay Greenberg
For CSNPhilly.com
Brian Boucher surrendered two goals off big, fat rebounds, one of which squeezed between his legs, one of which he juggled up over his own shoulder. Holy Roman Cechmanek! For an incomprehensible sixth time in the last 14 Flyers playoff games, Peter Laviolette had to change goalies with no end in sight except for the end of this season, unless somebody, anybody, starts to make some saves.
Matt Carle let David Krejci get behind him only 1:52 into the game, and Dennis Seidenberg split Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn with a pass that Nathan Horton eventually converted, so clearly the deepest defense in the NHL only put its goalie in deeper Saturday. But at some point the Flyers need a stop because this isnt last year and thats no longer Tukka Rask in the Boston goal.
So who gives the Flyers, routed 7-3 in Game 1, the best chance in Game 2? Is it the journeyman Boucher, with a track record of surprising cynical Flyer Nation in big spots going back 11 years? Is it 22-year-old Sergei Bobrovsky, who is even quicker than Laviolettes hook and will win playoff games for this franchise, but perhaps after this window to its first Stanley Cup since 1975 closes?
It is not Michael Leighton, who surrendered the worst Cup-clinching goal of the expansion era and came up utterly small both in the first period of Game 6 vs. Buffalo and after it when he wouldnt admit how bad he had been. It is not Paul Holmgren, even if half of Flyer Nation wants to go Eddie Shore and tie the GM to the nets and let Krejci blast away as punishment for not putting an end to almost 20 years of alleged management neglect of the most important position on the ice.
Two decades without a single series in which a Flyer goalie stoned a superior opponent out indeed, is quite the indictment. But, truth is, the options last summer were not anywhere close to the option of Ilya Bryzgalov this coming summer, one that the Flyers once and for all have to take and probably will, even if the cap room necessary to create will take a top player off arguably the NHLs deepest team.
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We say arguably, because the Bruins are pretty close -- not a good thing for the orange and black since there is every indication that Tim Thomas, off a longer body of good work over this regular season, is more primed to do a stone job than Ryan Miller was in the last round.
As clutch as this Flyers team has obviously proven to be, at some point falling behind 1-0 for the fourth time in six series will catch up to it. That said, the booing in the third period Saturday was by amnesiacs. The Flyers were similarly awful in a 4-1 loss in Game 4 in Montreal last May and didnt play a better game in their entire run than the 3-0 shutout they put up the next game.
So, its not just because the Flyers couldnt possibly be worse that we suggest they will be better in Game 2. And we have little doubt Boucher will be too, because thats been his M.O.
Had Bobrovsky not been beaten twice in relief Saturday, once at the near post, he would have been the top choice for Game 2, even as it has to be acknowledged that this carousel at some point has to stop. Bobrovsky is the future, so the more experience he gains this spring, the better the teams chances in 2012 and 2013 or as long as Chris Pronger, -- who uh, oh, went up the tunnel with two minutes to go -- can play at a high level.
The kid is talented enough to get hot. Or certainly as hot as Anti Niemi did last spring. Alas, Bobrovsky, yanked once already this spring, again didnt look ready to inspire anyone, so Boucher becomes practically the only option. Against Buffalo, he didnt seem to be handling the puck any better than the raw Bobrovsky, but the Flyers certainly feel more comfortable with Boucher than they would with any of the other choices. He is a decent first stop goalie. And a standup guy.
I dont think any of us played particularly well, Boucher said. When they get by me, I have to take responsibility.
Some goals, I was able to make the first save and not able to make the second. I have to look at the tape and see if I could do anything about those rebounds.
Its one game, not anything to get too frustrated over. Wasnt our best afternoon -- just the way it sometimes goes.
Since the days of a young Ron Hextall, its gone that way too often for the Flyers, a franchise that otherwise generally has done everything possible to win. Boucher, who played far worse than he did on Saturday in Game 5 of the Buffalo series, had the Zen and experience to finish off the all-but finished Sabres, but Boston will be coming at him with a lot more, not a calming thought even if Boucher is the coolest guy in the house Monday night.
Jay Greenberg covered the Flyers for 14 years for the Daily News and Evening Bulletin. His history of the Flyers, Full Spectrum, was published in 1996. He can be reached at jayg616@aol.com.
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