If there was one thing that last night's game against Washington proved, it's that no matter how hard a team's forwards hustle and how well its defense plays, bad goaltending can still cost the team dearly. Last night, Sergei Bobrovsky dug the team a 3-0 hole by allowing three stoppable goals -- including one that should have been a routine save for an ECHL or CHL goalie, must less an NHLer-- and the Flyers somehow found a way to overcome it.

Even with Washington missing Alex Ovechkin, Mike Green, Tom Poti and Jason Arnott, it was an impressive accomplishment for the Flyers to take over the game as thoroughly as they did and rally to score four unanswered goals before Brian Boucher allowed one he, too, probably should have stopped. As for the shootout, well, I didn't think it was possible for Boosh to look worse than he did in the shootout against Atlanta, but he managed it.

What was especially disheartening about Bobrovsky's performance last night was that he was coming off a brilliant game against a talented (and desperate) Dallas team on Saturday. I didn't know if the rookie would be able to match or surpass his play from the Stars game, but I also didn't think he'd mess the bed in such malodorous fashion against the Capitals.

There has been discussion over whether the Flyers should try to put Michael Leighton on recall waivers. It wouldn't shock me if they did so, because I don't think he'd be claimed. What other team would need a goalie like Leighton that badly or view him as such a threat that they'd feel compelled to block the Flyers by claiming him? Nobody. But a three-goalie system never works and Leighton isn't any definite upgrade on what's already there. I don't care what he's done with the Phantoms -- he's long since shown he's a fine AHL goalie, it's his ability as an NHL starter that's the question. He's just another body.

I think Laviolette almost has to come back with Bobrovsky again in the Pittsburgh game on Thursday. The Flyers still need to see if he's going to bounce back with a game like the one in Dallas -- which is what a good goalie, even a rookie, needs to do -- or if he shows that he's unreliable.

Any which way you slice it, the Flyers are getting what comes when you try to get by with shopping for your goalies in the bargain bin. You cross your fingers and hope for the best. For the most part this season, the Flyers goalies have done what they've needed to do. Unfortunately, they've faltered in two of the last three games.

OK, enough of the negative side. Let's look at the many positives from last night:

* Braydon Coburn had yet another monster game and , last night, may even have been surpassed by Andrej Meszaros. In fact, pretty much the entire D played very well. Kimmo Timonen also stepped up, as did Matt Carle.

* Andreas Nodl, Claude Giroux, Ville Leino, Danny Briere and Jeff Carter all played like men possessed last night. Nodl had his best game in the NHL to date, bar none.

* The Flyers' late second-period goal made the third period eminently more manageable. It felt almost like a foregone conclusion that they would tie the game at some point in the third unless they shot themselves in the foot with a killer mistake. They did a fine job of continuing to build momentum until they tied the game and then took the lead.

* Despite the shootout loss, the Flyers remain a point ahead of Washington in the standings with two games in hand. On a night where you trail 3-0 at one point, that's not really a bad outcome.

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