Can I has goaltender?

So, remember that time we rode a backup onto the playoffs, lost that backup to injury, and then were forced to ride the original backup to the playoffs instead? Yeah, fun times. The goaltending issue has been a fun one in Philadelphia over the past 15 or so seasons, with a revolving door in net. The latest hope was Martin Biron, who was quickly dismissed after looking for too much money from the Flyers this past offseason. This season, Paul Holmgren went outside the box, and plucked Ray Emery off the free agent market to serve as the team’s starter this season. Signed to a bargain contract upon his return to the NHL, Emery was looked at as a redemption type project for the Flyers. Emery previously started for the Senators, and lead them to the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals, losing to the Ducks. Locker room troubles in the capital city left him without a home in the NHL, instead forcing him to take his game to Russia and the KHL. While he put up good statistics, his most famous play came after he snapped at a trainer who tried to place a hat on his head. Not surprisingly, Emery ended up in Philadelphia after that incident.

Emery’s play through the season was solid enough to carry the Flyers through the early part of the season. A hip injury sidelined him around the holiday break, but he came back to play after that. The same hip injury would eventually claim his season prior to the Olympic Break, leaving the Flyers without their starting goaltender, scrambling to find a netminder to plug the gaping hole in net. Brian Boucher, certainly a name familiar to Flyers’ fans, was signed as the backup this season after serving as Evgeni Nabokov’s backup for the past two seasons in San Jose. Boucher actually signed with the Philadelphia Phantoms prior to the 2007-08 season, and performed well enough to be plucked from the team by San Jose, right before the AHL playoffs. Boucher had to carry the team during Emery’s absence, but was saddled with a few losses during the team’s dull showing in December. Boucher now finds himself the starter for the rest of the season now that Michael Leighton is gone for essentially the season.

If you still followed the team in 2006-07, you might have caught a glimpse of Michael Leighton. Originally drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks, Leighton saw time during Chicago’s low days, where Eric Daze led the team in scoring, despite playing in only about 45 games due to back problems. Leighton would have stops in the Buffalo Sabres and Nashville Predators organizations before finally being claimed off of waivers by the Flyers. Leighton had a good first stint with the Flyers, winning a couple of games in an otherwise dismal season. He had a solid few games with the Phantoms before the Montreal Canadiens plucked him off of waivers. Leighton spent the past two seasons in the Carolina Hurricanes organization, being named AHL goaltender of the year in 2007-08, also making a record 98 saves against the Phantoms (irony) in a 5-overtime game in the playoffs. Ryan Potulny (remember him?) would score in that overtime to end that game. Leighton spent 2008-09 as Cam Ward’s backup, seeing about 20 games and performing well enough to keep the job for this season. Leighton initially stumbled out of the gates, getting lit up by the Flyers in a 6-1 loss that Andy and I attended. Leighton would eventually be on waivers by December, where the Flyers snatched him away, obviously having seen his previous body of work.

If I told you Michael Leighton would be the starter for the Philadelphia Flyers a year ago, you’d laugh at me. If I told you he’d have a save percentage hovering around 92%, you’d spit whatever you’re drinking out in my face. If I told you his injury probably would seal another first round exit this season in the playoffs, you’d probably be on the floor already laughing. Welcome to reality. Leighton’s play with the Flyers has been remarkable, as he’s virtually saved (oh look, a pun) the season for the Flyers with his inspired play. While some fans have done nothing but spend 3 months trying to discredit his great play, he’s won 16 games in the meantime. Still prone to the occasional bad goal, Leighton’s relaxed play was very evident, as he made some huge saves, and displayed a flashy glove hand when needed. He provided the stability in net that the Flyers hoped to have with Emery in net. During the game in Nashville, Leighton made contact with Steve Sullivan, and subsequently sprained his ankle, while will sideline him for the rest of the season (insert sad face).

So now, the season rests on Boucher’s shoulders. He’s shown the ability to just go nuts and have huge hot streaks, so the Flyers are rolling the dice and are hoping for the best with Boucher. The more interesting picture is his backup, and who exactly it will be. Typical Philly luck will probably see Boucher suffer an injury or something else crazy, so this is a bit more important than it seems. Johan Backlund, who has had the best seat in the house to watch Greg Gilbert’s horrid coaching this season, is currently hurt and isn’t available to be the backup. Backlund has had a decent first season in North America, giving the Phantoms to win every night. John Grahame was signed to a PTO for some reason this season down in Adirondack, but was signed by Colorado for some reason. Yes, I know his mom works in the front office. Unfortunately, stopping pucks isn’t as easy as having your mom work in the front office.

Jeremy Duchesne, who was probably the worst of the Flyers’ goaltending prospects at the season, has had a pretty good season that has seen him play a couple of games in the AHL, securing a shutout. He finally had somewhat consistent play in the ECHL this year. I certainly wouldn’t want to dump an NHL playoff series on him, but he’s the best option right now over everything else we have. Michael Teslak, who probably was above Duchesne at the start of this season, has had a horrible year, and hasn’t sniffed a save percentage over 90% this season. Not good. Teslak is currently part of a mashup of goaltenders in Adirondack. Kris Mayotte, who is horrible (I’ve seen him play in person) is currently the backup right now. He’s marginal in the ECHL, and for some reason keeps getting signed to PTOs. For some reason, the Phantoms are trying to find someone worse than Grahame. Eeek. The current starter is Carter Hutton, who I’ll cover in another article. He’s on an ATO out of college. So you can see, fun times in Philadelphia goaltending today! Godspeed Michael Leighton.

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Leighton, A Pleasant Surprise in Goal

They Flyers seemed to have the goaltender position sorted out for the season.  With Ray Emery coming over from Russia, and an old friend in Brian Boucher serving as the backup.  And early on, things were going well, and the bottom fell out.  Emery came out and said about his abdominal injury, and he would then be lost for 4-6 weeks.  Ok now it’s Boucher’s job.  I think anyone following the game knew Boucher would do fine untill Ray could get back.  Boucher was in a similar spot with San Jose not long ago, and performed admirably.  The only worry, at that point, was possible fatigue.  Could Boucher handle the load, or would the rookie Backlund need to get in for a game or two?  All was good, and then Boucher injured his finger.  Time to hit the panic button.  With Carolina struggling after losing Cam Ward to an injury, and then signing Manny Legace, Michael Leighton sudden became available via waivers.  The Flyers made a claim for the struggling netminder.  Leighton gace the team an experienced option while Boucher was on the mend.  I don’t think anyone knew what to expect, based off the numbers it looked ugly.  Not to mention the tailspin we already found ourselves in.

So, enter Michael Leighton.  He would play his first full game for the Flyers (and first since the 2006-07 season in Orange and Black) on Dec 23rd in Tampa Bay.  Leighton stopped 31 of 33 shots as the Flyers won that game 5-2.  Sure it was a good effort from everyone to finally get a win, but Leighton looked shaky at times.  One of the most notable things with him was that he tended to over commit when things got down low around the net.  A few times he’d slide over to cover a pass or take a shot, and would end up on the far side of the net, and way out of position.  Essentially the net was life wide open with only a d-man standing there.  Ok, so it didn’t necessarily cause any major issues, but that’s the kind of thing that will get you into trouble really quick in the NHL.  His next game was in Carolina, against the team that just waived him not long ago.  You know he really wanted this one.  And he looked good again, still a few minor issues here and there, but solid all around.

Here’s a guy who is struggling mightily in Carolina, gets waived, and his then claimed by the Flyers.  Who at this point, are just not playing well, at all.  At quick glance, this looks like a complete and utter disaster waiting to happen.  Despite looking a little shaky the first time out, he suddenly finds a groove and is practically unbeatable.  He looks very solid in net, seeming to have fixed the minor issues he had at first.  In fact in each game that’s he’s started with the Flyers he hasn’t lost in regulation.  His only loss coming at the Winter Classic in overtime, despite that he played pretty well in that game.  Over the ten games he’s played in Philly, Leighton is 7-0-1with a Goals Against Average of 2.13 and a save percentage at .938.  Pretty impressive numbers compared to the ones he put up in Carolina, and considering that he came onto a team that seemed to be doing everything wrong at the time.

Recently, we learned that Ray Emery was healthy and would soon be back with the Flyers.  So now we have a problem.  You have your #1 guy back, who was playing pretty well up to his injury.  Your regular backup, who played good when he got his chances. And the your stopgap solution who is just playing lights out right now.  So what do you do?  Flyers GM Paul Holmgren has stated that the team will keep all three goalies for the time being.  There are going to be a few important things to keep an eye on here.  First is Emery’s health.  he says he’s ready, ahead of schedule.  And played with the Phantoms over the weekend in a conditioning assignment.  Emery’s now back with the Flyers, because the Phantoms are off until Wednesday.  The other thing to watch his the health of defensemen OK Tollefsen and Ryan Parent.  When one returns somebody’s gonna have to go.  The question is who.  It’s pretty safe to say that Ray isn’t going anywhere.  That leaves Boucher and Leighton.  Both have small cap numbers, so nothing there. Boucher is signed through next year, while Leighton is a UFA at season’s end.  So what do you do?

Here’s my thoughts.  At this point, I believe that you cannot sit Leighton.  He’s simply on a roll right now, and the team seems to have gotten it’s act back together, for the most part.  He’s basically saved our season up to this point, and clearly deserves to stay in until he has a bad game or two.  But what about Boosh and Razor?  I’d like to see Razor back with the Phantoms for another conditioning stint.  We need to make sure that’s he has fully recovered.  It does us no good to have him come back, and then go out again for a long time. And abdominal injures can be tricky sometimes.  So I would, for once, like to see the Flyers take the safe road here.  We all now injuries have gone with the team over recent years.  Player is said to be fully recovered, comes back and plays for a few games, and then re-injures himself.  See Danny Briere, Simon Gagne, Peter Forsberg, etc.  The list goes on and on.  So let’s say that after another AHL stint that Ray is fine and returns to the big club.  That again leaves Leighton and Boosh.  Now I love Boosh as much as the next guy, but I think at this point he’s the odd man out,  that is unless Leighton begins to struggle mightily.  When you don’t have a true #1 guy in net and you have these 1A and 1B situations, it’s normally a good bet to ride the hot hand.  And Leighton just isn’t giving Boucher a chance right now. At that point Emery is your starter, with Leighton backing him up.

When the whole goalie situation went downhill, and after claiming Leighton I don’t think any of us saw this coming.  I know I didn’t.  But I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how well Leighton has performed.  According to official Flyers twitter account Leighton will once again be in goal tomorrow versus the Stars.

One other note.  With playing Dallas tomorrow I’d like to give a shout out to our friend Cole Jones over at http://www.theother6seconds.com/.

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On The Farm #1

So I’ll be honest, I haven’t followed the Phantoms as closely this year. It’s kind of hard getting to games when I’m in another state. Oh well. I also don’t think I’m going to shell out my money for AHL Live’s subpar service, so I’m stuck looking at boxscores and relying on beat writers from lovely Glens Falls, NY. As of today, the Phantoms are 5-4-1 for a total of 11 points, good for 3rd in the East Division.

So far, they’ve played the same handful of teams, and are playing Albany a total of 12 TIMES. Yes, 12. The AHL isn’t huge on teams playing outside of their own backyard. This should get old fast. To make matters worse, both teams introduced special jerseys to be worn on the occasion that the two meet, which are visible on their websites and Flickr, because nobody mainstream wants to look at them. From the looks of it, the purple is completely gone, meaning that my sweet purple phantoms third from last year is a waste. Oh, and they got rid of Jeff Szwez too. Sweetastic. I’m sure you’ve seen their current jerseys, but the headshots on AHL.com of the players lead me to believe that they’ve got a retro-themed alternate that mimics the parent club’s current orange beauties. I’ll buy it

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