Philadelphia Flyers coach Peter Laviolette will give goalie Michael Leighton another chance.
Laviolette informed the media Sunday evening that Leighton would, indeed, be the starter for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday at United Center (8 p.m. ET, NBC, CBC, RDS). The Blackhawks lead the series, 1-0.
Leighton was pulled in favor of Brian Boucher in the second period of Game 1 after allowing 5 goals on 20 shots in a 6-5 loss. Following the Flyers practice at United Center Sunday, Laviolette still hadn’t determined his starter for Game 2.
The Flyers’ public relations department issued a text message, via Laviolette, that Leighton would return.
“If I am (the starter), I’m just going to kind of approach it the same way I did the last game, just keep doing what I’ve been doing and try not to think about what happened (Saturday),” Leighton said. “I wasn’t nervous (on Saturday). That wasn’t the reason I played that way. Maybe it was that we had a couple of days off, and it just took us a little while to get into the game. We just didn’t play our game. We’re going to regroup and have a good (Monday night).”
Leighton admitted he and goalie coach Jeff Reese looked at plenty of film of Game 1.
“Jeff Reese went over some video (Sunday) morning,” Leighton said. “He showed me some positives and negatives. We went over something and said, all right, we have to change this a little bit or watch this and watch that.”
Leighton is 6-1 with a 1.96 goals-against average and .930 save percentage with a League-leading shutouts in 9 appearances in the playoffs this spring. Boucher had stopped 11 of 12 shots in relief of Leighton in Game 1, sparking a debate over whether or not Laviolette would switch keepers for Game 2.
“For the most part, we know we’re going to play better defensively in our zone (on Monday),” Leighton continued. “A couple of times we had four guys in front of our net and they had one guy come in and get a clear shot and that’s not our game. We know we’re a better defensive team than that. We’re definitely going to show it next game.”
GREAT news, and I feel this is the correct decision. The Flyers need to go back to Leighton as you see in my earlier post it was a defensive break down… Good job here and this is the correct call.
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