Leights Out & Lappy Feeling Wacky

Leights Out
Well what many had suspected has been confirmed.

When Paul Holmgren and Peter Laviolette gave the so-called prognosis on Michael Leighton of "He'll be out until Thursday," nearly every Flyers beat writer as well as me believed there was more to this injury that the Flyers originally led on.

It's nearly the same situation with how the Flyers disclosed the Ray Emery. Here's an article from Broad Street Hockey comparing the two.

They say Leighton is out a month, but it's up for debate as to how long that month ends up being. So right now, the Flyers goaltenders are Brian Boucher and Sergei Bobrovsky with Johan Backlund's recovery from offseason surgery just about over. Backlund may start one of the Flyers' preseason games this weekend.

So with the limited golies on the Flyers roster, should they pursue another man between the pipes? Well considering the Flyers cap situation and the lack of inexpensive goalies on the market, that's really not an option. Any netminder available (Manny Legace and José Théodore are a few names that pop up) will either be too expensive or too, well, crappy.

So by the time the season starts, the Flyers goalie situation should go like this: Boucher the starter, Backlund the backup and Bobrovsky starter with the Phantoms.

Obviously there will be people who want Bobrovsky to be the starter with the big club. But with the incredible amount of buzz surrounding Bobrovsky, the Flyers would be crazy to start him in the pros this early. He has played a total of five periods in an NHL-sized rink and has never played more than 40 games in a season. If the Flyers want Bobrovsky to be as good as they think he's going to be, they're going to give him all the work he needs down in the AHL for a season.

Lappy Feeling Wacky 
And then there's the Laperriere injury.

What can you really say, the guy had concussion symptoms and wanted to play in the Finals so bad that he decided to play through them to help his team win.

It's rarely understated how important Laperriere is to the Flyers penalty kill, but this does make a little more room for other players to make the Flyers roster.

Holmgren and Laviolette won't say it but this probably means Guerin will most definitely be on the team and Darroll Powe will take Laperriere's spot on the 4th line and more importantly, on the penalty kill.

I just hope this isn't a Keith Primeau-type situation, but we'll have to wait to find out.

Predictions and "Grade-ictions" Series

Michael Leighton

2009/2010 Regular season stats: 27GP (with Flyers), 16W, .918 SV%, 2.48 GAA
2010 Playoff stats: 14GP, 8W, .916 SV%, 2.46 GAA
Grade: B+

Let's see, which Mike Leighton do we want to look at? Well, I guess we'll ignore the Carolina Hurricane Leighton (who had an .848 SV% and a 4.29 GAA) and start with the Flyers regular season Leighton. He had a .918 SV% and a 2.48 GAA and was nothing short of Stonewall Jackson. He was on fire until he had an ankle injury that forced him to miss the final two months of the season and the first series and a half of the postseason. And then there's postseason Leighton.

 At times, No. 49 was "Leights out" and then at other times the opposition lit the red "Leight" behind his net like a pinball machine. In the conference quarterfinals, except for the first period of game seven, Leighton was dominant. In the Eastern Conference Finals, except for game 3, Leighton was dominant. But in the Stanley Cup finals he was, simply put, bad. All you need to do is look at the game winning goal in game six to see how ineffective Leighton was. He was letting in softies left and right (and down the middle). He just wasn't the same goalie that had been in net for the Flyers before the Finals.

It's hard to tell which Leighton will be playing for Philadelphia in 2010. Maybe a full offseason with Jeff Reese will shore up his 5-hole troubles, or maybe it won't and he'll be the netminder we saw against the Blackhawks. Who knows?...but I'll take my best guess.


2010/2011 Predictions: 60GP, 35W, .909 SV%, 2.61 GAA

The $1.3 Million Man

This afternoon the Chicago Blackhawks signed veteran goaltender Marty Turco to a 1-year contract worth $1.3 million. He joins this year's Stanley Cup champions who have already done a complete team overhaul after winning the Cup for the first time since 1961.

This signing basically ends Antti Niemi's career as a Hawk. He won $2.75 million in arbitration and Chicago decided that their Cup-wining netminder was too pricey. Niemi now becomes an unrestricted free agent and is free to sign with any team he wants.

Just to let you all know, Michael Leighton is signed for two years at a cap hit of $1.55 million per year. For anyone who doesn't quite understand what I'm getting at, I'm saying that Marty Turco makes around $250,000 less per year than Mike Leighton. If Paul Holmgren could have realized that Leighton isn't, won't, and will never be the goaltender to win the Flyers a Stanley Cup and he could have signed Marty Turco for less than Leighton.

Let me just say that I don't think Turco will be able to bring the revamped Blackhawks back to the Finals, but I certainly don't think Leighton will be able to do it with the Flyers either. Could Turco have done it with Philadelphia? I think there was a higher chance of that, yes.

Flyers Trade Deadline Analysis

The 2010 NHL trade deadline came and went without the Flyers making a single move. A day or so before the deadline they did waive Riley Cote and Danny Syvret. So, I guess that does constitute a roster move, but not a trade.

The Flyers were simply too handcuffed by their lack of draft picks and lack of cap room, but more so by not having many picks. The Flyers may have have gotten Raffi Torres had they had the picks and the same goes for Dan Hamhuis. Both of whom would have made a nice depth addition to this team. The Flyers also looked to try to add Tomas Vokoun and Tomas Kaberle. The Panthers wanted Jeff Carter in exchange for Vokoun (thanks, but no thanks), and Kaberle makes $4.25 mil., a little too steep considering the Flyers' cap troubles.

With Michael Leighton stumbling last night, it looked as if the Flyers made the wrong decision in not obtaining a goalie. But the ones who were available--Tomas Vokoun, Marty Biron (been there, done that), Dwayne Roloson (ranked 32nd and 24th in the league in GAA and SV% respectively), and others--hadn't been playing nearly as well or as consistently as Leighton has been since he's gotten to Philadelphia (13-3-1 this season with a 2.33 GAA and a .933 SV% with the Flyers).

Would I have liked for the Flyers to have made a move...yea. Would the Flyers be better off had they made even a small a move...possibly. It's just hard for Paul Holmgren to argue against a five game win streak (before Wednesday's loss to Florida) and an 18-7-1 record since Dec. 23. It's way too soon to know if Holmgren's decision to stand pat will work out. I guess we'll find out come April and May.

stats c/o NHL.com and nhlnumbers.com