When this Flyers-Bruins series began, I took Peter Laviolette's team in 7 games. Gut feeling.
Of course, I expected a split in Boston to start the series and when that didn't happen and the Flyers went down 0-3 ... anyway, it now appears we are going 7.
What do you say about the resiliency of this group? Nothing, I mean that, too, NOTHING seems to faze them.
What are of the odds you lose you're starting goalie (Brian Boucher) in an elimination game; the backup (Michael Leighton) comes in working off a shutout and hasn't played in two months and he still combines for a shutout?
Do you realize - Elias stuff here _ that is the only 2nd time in NHL history a goalie tandem got a combined shutout? The last time it happened, I was 2 years old - 1955. None of our readers were around.
I wanted badly for Leighton to get his shot to show this team whether he has what it takes to earn a proper contract. Whether he could be a "money" goalie - like Jaroslav Halak is right now _ with the Flyers in the playoffs.
Even Leighton admitted after getting hurt in March that he could not fault the Flyers in his next contract negotiation for not being able to "price" him accordingly, in the market without seeing what he did in the playoffs.
Is this going to be Leighton's chance? I think it just might. RIght now, we are witnessing league history in the making if the Flyers come back to win this. The storylines are unreal right now. Which is what makes the NHL playoffs such a great event to cover and watch.
You simply don't know what is going to happen.
I talked to Chris Pronger and Danny Briere alone late after the game in the hallways at TD Garden. They feel the Bruins are thinking what all of YOU are thinking. That they let the Flyers slip back into this thing and it can go either way.
Mark Recchi was angry after that game Monday night, too. Not just because when Boucher got hurt and Leighton came in the Bruins weren't getting shots, but because they weren't getting chances even when Boucher was in the game.
"We didn’t get enough, period," Recchi said. "Even when he was in net. We were getting out-shot at the time, even when he got hurt. Like I said, we weren’t sharp at all and we weren’t ready to commit like they were and we weren’t skating and we weren’t executing, and they were better than us tonight. So good lesson for us and it’s a little bit of – they came in, they slapped us in the face, and now we have to go there and realize that this is a series now."
A series I feel the Flyers are going to pull out.
Wouldn't that be great for Michael Leighton? Wouldn't that be just deserts given he was robbed of his chance to show what he could do when he sprained that ankle in Nashville?
Here's my story on CSNPhilly.com:
Click Here 
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»