Let’s face it folks, as good as Philadelphia Flyers netminder Michael Leighton has been thus far in the playoffs (second overall in save percentage, .918, first overall in goals against average, 2.34 and first overall in shutouts with three) Leighton has not been very crisp against the Chicago Blackhawks. Upon further review, Leighton has been very good in Philadelphia at the Wachovia center where he has a record of 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Final, giving up just five goals on 61 shots. That said, given Leighton’s game five performance, in which he allowed three goals on 13 shots in 20 minutes of play, nobody could blame Flyers head coach Peter Laviollette if he chose to go with veteran netminder Brian Boucher instead of the suddenly struggling Leighton. Lest Flyers fans forget, Boucher struggled mightily at Home against the Boston

Heading into game five of the Stanley Cup Final, there was a lot of chatter about whether or not Chicago Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville would switch up his lines. Well, as the Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers got set to take the first draw of the game there was evidence that change was here as Jonathan Toews took the draw with Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky at his side. Breaking up the Hawks top line of Toews, Patrick Kane, and Dustin Byfuglien (a line which came into the game with a plus/minus rating of minus -12) was all but a necessity, as this threesome has had no luck all series long. The Philadelphia Flyers came out rather flat to start game five, with the Blackhawks dictating the play down low and creating scoring chances—essentially, the Hawks looked like the Flyers

Throughout these playoffs the Philadelphia Flyers have made the impossible, well, possible. Friday night was no exception as the Flyers handed the Chicago Blackhawks their second straight road loss, taking game four by a final tally of 5-3. For the most part the Flyers dominated the Hawks in every facet of the game; that is until the third period when, with the benefit of a five-on-three power play, the Hawks got back into the game, narrowing a 4-1 deficit to 4-2 on their first power play goal of the entire series. The Hawks managed to score another goal just under four minutes later when Hawks defenseman Brian Campbell shot the puck through a ton of traffic, a shot that eventually eluded Flyers goaltender Michael Leighton—who, despite giving up three goals, was excellent on the night. From a Flyers perspective the

Heading into game three of the Stanley Cup Final there were two streaks at risk—the Chicago Blackhawks seven game unbeaten streak on the road and the Flyers 7-1 record at home during the playoffs. In games one and two the Chicago Blackhawk crowd rocked the arena—reaching decibel ratings over 110-115 on the scale. In Philadelphia, the Wachovia Center was rocking on Wednesday night, as a solid pro-Flyers crowd, decked out in Orange t-shirts, were as boisterous as they come to start game three. The Flyers responded with some solid forechecking and great pressure in the Hawks zone. Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger “rocked” Hawks forward Jonathan Toews at 15:55 of the first period (who made the poor decision to try to run Pronger). Toews ended up on his “Butt”, which was actually rather humorous as Pronger barely budged on the play,

Despite his overall stellar performance throughout the 2008-09 playoffs, Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby took a lot of heat last summer for his lack of results in last year’s Stanley Cup Finals against the Detroit Red Wings. Given his lack of point production against Detroit in the finals—scoring just one goal in seven games, finishing with just three points in the series—Crosby was passed over for the Conn Smythe Trophy in favor of teammate Evgeni Malkin. This, despite Crosby leading all NHL players with 15 goals and finishing second overall in points with 31. Malkin, who finished with 14 goals (second overall) and 36 points (first overall) in last year’s playoffs, took home the coveted Conn Smythe trophy because of his superior performance in the Cup Final—there was a lot of weight attached to the Finals, many believe the defining

The Chicago Blackhawks were badly outplayed in the third period of game two of the Stanley Cup Finals, but in the end, they escaped with a 2-1 victory and a 2-0 series lead. For the Flyers, they can take solace in the fact that they have now played two highly contested games against the favored Blackhawks—two games that could have gone in the Flyers favor. Philadelpia Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette gave game one “goat” Michael Leighton a vote of confidence by giving him a chance at redemption, starting the tough-luck goaltender in game two. Laviolette was rewarded with a strong effort from Leighton, one which saw him make 24 saves on 26 Chicago shots. At the other end of the ice, Chicago goaltender Antti Niemi (who was chosen first star of the game) was just a little bit better