There is nothing more deflating to a club than when a goalie allows a soft goal at a bad time. Last night, the Flyers didn't play a very good all-around game against the Florida Panthers but the single biggest culprit in the loss was Michael Leighton permitting a pair of preventable goals when his club had seemingly gotten back into the game. An extremely rusty Brian Boucher was no more effective.

While there's no need to panic or take Paul Holmgren to task for not making a trade for a goaltender at yesterday's deadline, the timing was poor for the goalies to churn out a clunker. Yes, goaltending and defense are what gets its done in the playoffs.

But the Flyers have generally played well defensively for the last two months. Last night was more the exception than the rule. And while the jury will be out on Leighton until he shows he can carry his play through the stretch and into the playoffs, I don't see where there were any reasonably priced alternatives at the deadline. The club had cast its lot with Ray Emery this season, and got itself into a position of having to grin and bear it with whatever they get from Leighton in crunch time.

Paul Holmgren deserves criticism for putting the club into a situation where the salary cap limited his options at hockey's single most important position. He deserves criticism for having dealt away too many draft picks (in a few cases, outright giving them away to get rid of problem contracts) and giving out too many long-term deals with no trade clauses to have trading assets. But I won't criticize him for not overpaying for goaltenders who would either be dubious "upgrades" or would open other gaping holes on the current roster.

As far as the lack of a move for a forward such as Ray Whitney or Colby Armstrong or defenseman such as Dan Hamhuis, the trading price tags were inflated and the club's depleted trading assets made such deals impossible. I didn't expect the club to do anything of significance yesterday and have no problem with not making a trade for its own sake. This Flyers club has flaws, but I think Holmgren realized that he's just going to have to hope for the best the rest of this season.

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Today's Daily Drop at Versus.com looks at the Flyers next opponent, the struggling Buffalo Sabres. Ryan Miller certainly did his part last night to end the club's swoon, but once again the offensive support wasn't there and the club was sloppy defensively. The Flyers may be catching the Sabres at the perfect time, but they're going to have to play much, much better than they did against the Panthers.

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