On The Back Of Bouch, A Decade Later

Welcome to Adamn Gonsiewski, new contributor to Crossing Broad.

Don’t pop the champagne bottles just yet. The inconsistent New York Rangers showed up just in time to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs on home ice tonight, temporarily saving their playoff hopes. While the outcome might seem unimportant, the Blueshirts’ victory means the Flyers must win one more game to clinch a playoff spot, who head into postseason play for the third consecutive year with two more points.  The Flyers and Rangers face off this weekend in an important home-and-home series, each team’s final two games of the season, to determine who will play postseason hockey and who will dust off their golf clubs. Or in Sean Avery’s case, continue fashion designing aspirations. [Evidence: Avery Interns at Vogue]

It should not have come down to these last two games; the job should have been done earlier. As most Flyers fans have been reminded over and over again throughout the season, these Flyers were deemed favorites to win the Stanley Cup by some analysts before the season. But there’s a reason games are played and not won on paper. Despite a roster backboned by Chris Pronger, the Flyers have never gained an identity.  Often concerning, when push came to shove, the Flyers have rolled over (with the exception of Ian Laperriere). The situation was exacerbated with injuries to goalies Ray Emery and Michael Leighton, which forced Brian Boucher to be thrown into a tight playoff chase.

While most teams have the confidence to overcome a bad goal or ticky-tack call, your 2009-2010 Flyers have proven more times than not that they can’t. They lack the confidence. They lack the consistent play.  If Brian Boucher can limit the bad goals (see Worst goal ever? ) and make the crucial stops necessary to prevent momentum swings against the Orange and Black (see his game-saving paddle save versus Toronto Tuesday night), the Flyers could have a surprising playoff run.  It shouldn’t always come down to the goaltending, but for these Flyers, it often does; they have seldom bailed out their goalies all year.

Although Boucher is far from an ideal playoff goalie, he has shown the propensity to get hot. He rattled off five consecutive shutouts with the Phoenix Coyotes back in early 2004. He helped the Flyers into the Eastern Conference Finals in 2000. More recently, Boucher had a pretty good run back in December before he lost the starting job to Leighton due to an untimely hand laceration.  Despite the Flyers treading water for the last few weeks, Boucher has only let up 4 goals in his last three games, culminating in a shutout last Tuesday night and the Flyers’ first two-game winning streak in nearly a month.  Maybe, just maybe, he is on the verge of another hot streak just in time for the playoffs. With the return of Jeff Carter , the Flyers’ top goal-scorer, and some clutch saves from the netminder, the Flyers will make the playoffs, and could even upset their first round opponent and advance further than their fans and most “analysts”  expect. Not surprisingly for the Flyers, it all rides on Boucher.

Flyers Files:

 - If you erased it from your memory, recall the Rangers beat the Flyers at the Wachovia Center on the final game of the season last year, 4-3, to ruin their playoff home-ice advantage. Hopefully the Flyers can avenge that loss come Friday night at MSG.

-With Jeff Carter being cleared to play, expect to see him in the lineup on Friday night. If the Rangers lost tonight (thereby clinching a playoff spot of the idle Flyers), Carter probably would have been held out until the playoffs to prevent injury.

-With the return of Carter, expect to see Claude Giroux’s playing time cut by a few minutes. Giroux, the Flyers’ most dynamic player late last season, has a two-game goal streak and six points in his last five games. Hopefully he can keep contributing from a diminished role, assuming Carter does in fact return.