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2010 Stanley Cup Finals: Michael Leighton to start in Game 2

Image (1) Leighton3-thumb-250x166-12627.jpg for post 1860

After Peter Laviolette decided to pull Michael Leighton in last night’s game, despite the Flyers being down just a goal in the 2nd period in a game that was obviously not a ‘normal’ Stanley Cup game, you knew that most of the news today would center around whether Leighton or Brian Boucher would start today.

Then Laviolette refused to tell the media today who would be starting, and it seemed that neither Leighton nor Boucher knew who was starting either.

After word started to leak that Leighton would in fact get the start, the Flyers have officially announced the Michael Leighton will indeed be in net tomorrow night in Game 2.

Earlier today, Chris Pronger was asked about the goaltender situation and if Laviolette decided to go with Boucher that would be sending the wrong message to the team. Pronger wasn’t biting.

“That’s the coach’s decision,” Pronger said. “We play the same way whether Bouch is in the net or Leights is in the net. It doesn’t matter, it shouldn’t matter to us in front of him. We need to play better in front of him whoever is in the net. That’s the bottom line for us. It doesn’t matter.”

This is why sticking with Leighton is the right choice. The goaltending wasn’t the reason the Flyers allowed five goals on 20 shots in the first and second period; he was far from perfect, but the Flyers played extremely poor in front of him as well. Pronger feels if the Flyers are able to clear up their approach, then they’ll be in much better shape moving forward.

"[I’m] more concerned with how the goals were scored, just through defensive lapses, really,” Pronger said. “It wasn’t like they created a whole lot. It was more on our mistakes. And I guess that could be disheartening and a positive thing. We can clean that up and we won’t be allowing as much.”