The Flyers were once again staring elimination in the face tonight against the Boston Bruins, and having never forced a Game 6 after being down 0-3 in a playoff series, things didn't look good for the Flyers. Even though they had a 1-0 lead going into the second period, things got even worse when Brian Boucher went down with an injury after ending up at the bottom of a pile early in the second. Michael Leighton, who Boucher replaced in early March when he went down with an injury, came into the game for his first playoff time of the season. Boucher had to be helped off the ice, and the Flyers now had their backup-turned starter-turned backup due to injury goaltender in net.
Luckily, Leighton managed to find that magic that he had during the regular season and kept Boston off the board while the Flyers increased their lead. Scott Hartnell scored his first goal of the playoffs in the second period, and then Simon Gagne took over, scoring on a power play goal late in the second period and once again late in the third period to cap the scoring. Just like that, the Flyers had a 4-0 win and the series is coming back to Philadelphia for a Game 6 on Wednesday night. This isn't over yet, not by a long shot, but the injury to Boucher looms large tonight.
For everything that people, myself included, had said about Boucher during the regular season, he had been great so far in the playoffs. He did have a few moments where he relapsed into his old ways during this series with the Bruins, but you can't take away from the fact that the Flyers wouldn't have made it this far without him. He was the one that made that stop against the Rangers that got the Flyers into the playoffs on the last day of the season, and he was the one that stopped the Devils time and time again during the first round of the playoffs. Now, it's unlikely that he'll be available to play during at least the rest of this series, but more is sure to come out tomorrow. As of this moment, the injury is being called an ACL sprain to both knees. That's bad news for anyone and even worse news for a goalie, who needs his knees in perfect shape to be at his best.
It's a shame that Boucher is going to be out for at least the next game of this series, and possibly longer. Now, the burden falls on the man he replaced, Michael Leighton. Leighton looked good tonight in backup of Boucher and played well during the regular season before being knocked out due to an injury himself. Regardless, Leighton is going to be the man in Game 6 for the Flyers, and he's going to have to be at his best. The Flyers have already fought elimination off twice while down 0-3 for the first time in franchise history, and now they have to force a Game 7 after their starting goalie goes down early in Game 5. Stranger things have happened, but I don't know if I can think of many off the top of my head. At least Game 6 is in Philadelphia. If this is the last home game the Flyers have this year, the fans will be able to say that the Flyers went down swinging and knocked the Devils out of the playoffs.
In NHL history, only two teams have come back from 0-3 holes to win the series. Toronto did it to Detroit in 1942 and the New York Islanders came back against Pittsburgh back in 1975. That's it. Can the Flyers do it? The way this season has gone, I wouldn't put it past them, but they still have to win Game 6 first. One game at a time, boys. One game at a time.
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