Boucher makes Lavy's gamble work
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Flyers Report: Broad Street Bull
Boucher makes Lavy's gamble work
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
BUFFALO _ By switching goalies for Game 3 in Buffalo, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette left himself open to be second-guessed.
But veteran Brian Boucher made the gamble pay off, making 35 saves to key the Flyers’ 4-2 win over the Sabres Monday night.
Boucher allowed one bad goal (scored on a long rebound he served), but was solid overall, especially during a first period in which Buffalo fired 16 shots. He also stopped 10 of 11 shots while the Sabres were on the power play.
In two appearances against the Sabres, Boucher is 2-0 with 55 saves on 58 shots, a staggering .948 save percentage.
“I have a belief in myself , and I knew I put a lot of work into this year to have a good season,” said Boucher, who relieved rookie Sergei Bobrovsky in Game 2 and helped spark a 5-4 victory. “I know there may be questions from the outside, but for myself, I feel I can do the job. And I’m happy to get the chance.”
Boucher, 34, will get several more. He’s earned it.
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Winger Nik Zherdev scored what proved to be the winning goal late in the second period, finishing a two on one with Mike Richards.
Steve Montador was the lone defender between Richards and Zherdev.
“I was calling to Monty that I needed help,” goalie Ryan Miller said. “…I was hoping Monty would play the middle more.”
But Montador stuck with Richards in the left circle and Zherdev cruised out front.
“He sees Richards there, and maybe thinks he’s going to get more help on the backside,” Miller said. I saw it develop. We had a little mixup and we both committed to Richards and left that backside open.”
Zherdev took the pass and had an easy tap-in for his first career playoff goal.
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Breakaways. Breaking out of a slump, Jeff Carter had a goal, an assist and nine shots (four on goal)…..Braydon Coburn and Kimmo Timonen were each plus-3…..Coburn had a game-high four blocked shots……Buffalo won 58 percent of the faceoffs….Blair Betts won just five of 22 faceoffs (23 percent)….The Flyers were outshot, 37-26…..Andrej Meszaros (24:22), Timonen (24:01) and Coburn (23:15) were the only Flyers who played at least 20 minutes.
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Flyers need to get the PP back on track. Going into the game they were 1 for 56 (10.7%) and scored only only one of the 3 they got in game 3.
The PK was awesome killing off six Buffalo PPs.
But Boosh won this game for them, especially with strong play in the 1st period when Buffalo was swarming.
Flyers in 6.
- Yo negative Nancy, 1 for 3 on the PP is actually very good. Right now in the playoffs there are 5 teams with a worse percentage than the Flyers! Sorry bud but Phoenix can keep their 31% on the PP and be down 0-3. Once Pronger gets back in the lineup the PP will be considerably better.
— aantny88 - Gamble? Boosh was the surer bet all along.— No Ids
- I agree. Bobrovsky was the gamble. He was an unknown, yet Boucher was a lot more of a safe bet. — Hexy4GM
- It's good to have three goalies. Let the one guy play who is currently having a hot streak, then switch back to one of the others.— flyerdommo
- Gamble? Boosh deserves to be in there, he has a winning record against Buffalo.. well done Boooooooosh!— MUSKOKA17
gamble? laviolette is replacing a no-name rookie who is inconsistent at best with an established veteran. it's not like he threw boosh in there in place of luongo or lundqvist. nice work sam!— kdub13- IT WAS NOT A GAMBLE, WHAT KIND OF STUPID COMMENT IS THAT. LOOK AT BOUCHER'S PLAYOFF RECORD. HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE STARTER FROM THE BEGINNING. THIS IS NOT BASEBALL WHERE YOU NEED A CLOSER. NO WONDER PLAYERS GET ANNOYED BY THE WRITTEN MEDIA.— Howard32
- Z needs to play.— n62
- I'll take 33% on the pp for the rest of the playoffs. Sign me up.— Paul1954
- Brian Boucher is 5th among all active NHL goalies in playoff GAA. That's not a gamble— JSaq
- We all know how this Boucher story ends. Thankfully Buffalo's been pretty undisciplined.
- if the Flyers lose it will not be because of Boucher, just like it wasn't him that lost the 2001 and 2005 playoffs, he played great in both. get off his back and let him do his thing, playing steady smart goal.— Howard32
