Welcome back Brian Boucher! In his first start since December 21, 2009, Boucher came back strong, with plenty of great saves in this one. He officially stopped 27 of 29, but there were more than a few great saves in there. He was a little rusty, but that was expected. All in all, a great game by Boucher. Which makes us all wonder, why was this guy unable to get a single start in 3 months?
The Flyers won in Dallas for the first time since 1996, and it came as a result of two pretty ugly goals. First, Simon Gagne plugged away in front, eventually poking one past Dallas netminder Kari Lehtonen. Mike Richards tied the game up later on a nice breakaway, only to be followed up with Scott Hartnell having a puck go in off his pants. That would prove to be the game winner.
Kimmo Timonen was unable to score a goal on his birthday, but he did lay a pretty wicked hit on Steve Ott in the third. That alone is well worth checking out on the sidebar.
While it’s hard to say tonight was a great 60 minute effort – there were a few too many mistakes – it’s easy to say the team played well. Now it’s off to Atlanta in hopes of continuing this effort.
Jump for Updated Standings, Questions with Answers, and the Comment of the Night.
With tonight’s win, the Flyers move into fifth due to their game in hand.
Questions with Answers
- Obvious question: how does Boucher play tonight? FANTASTIC! Hyperbole aside, Boucher was pretty awesome.
- The Flyers dominated the Stars on home ice last time they met. Any continuation of that? Definitely not a domination, but the Flyers played well.
- Dallas is desperate. Seven points out, 12 games left. Do they appear to be packing it in or do they come out firing? Maybe it was just me, but they didn’t appear to do either. They came out like a team who wanted to win, but they didn’t look desperate. Basically, they looked like a bubble playoff team.
Comment of the Night:
In honor of Travis falling asleep mid-game:
One thing I miss about Leighton: Not being able to smother shots resulted in much faster games.
