Philly Flying Lower After Leighton Injury
Last season the Philadelphia Flyers headed into the playoffs as a team with strong forward play, a solid defense, but questions about whether their goaltending could be consistent enough to make real noise in the postseason.
The worries were proven to be accurate, as Philly gave up 18 goals during the course of their six-game loss to Pittsburgh. In an attempt to solve those problems, the Flyers brought in the always temperamental Ray Emery, with mixed results.
The team learned over the winter break that Emery's hip injury would need season ending surgery, forcing them to turn to the inexperienced Michael Leighton, who came to the team from Carolina. Leighton hadn't been spectacular, but he had helped the team to an 8-5-2 record since Emery went down.
In spite of Leighton;s ability, the Flyers were largely panned for not making any moves to shore up their goaltending situation at the trade deadline, and it now may come back to haunt them.
Leighton suffered a high ankle sprain in the Flyers' shootout victory over Nashville on Tuesday, and after an MRI today it was announced he will be out a minimum of eight weeks, which means the rest of the regular season and at least the first round of the playoffs.
Now, Leighton is no Ryan Miller, so his health was no guarantee of a deep playoff run for Philly, but the injury definitely gives them another hurdle they didn't need.
The team will now rely on the tandem of Brian Boucher and Jeremy Duchesne. Boucher is a 33 year old career backup. He rejoined the Flyers this season, returning to where his career started, and it makes six different teams in five seasons since the lockout for Brian. Tonight will be his first start since January 21st, a game he left after 22 minutes with a finger injury, and he has posted a meager .886 save percentage in five appearances since the injury..
Bringing up Duchesne from their ECHL affiliate to play backup doesn't seem like the wisest move, either. I appreciate that he's 23 and has room to develop yet, but the ECHL is to the NHL as AA is to MLB, and Duchesne was only the backup for Kalamazoo.THat means the Flyers, in the case of Boucher not playing well (which he has done numerous times before) will have as their backup plan a player who has yet to reach a half-season of experience at the second highest level of the minors.
Sure the Flyers will make the playoffs, but can they truly hope to accomplish anything of substance?
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