Johan Backlund will Return in Pre-season

With only two games left in the preseason, both against the Sabres, Johan Backlund will make his return. On Friday, in Philly, Backlund will dress for the 1st time since backing up Brian boucher in the playoffs and will look to play for the 1st time since his lone NHL start in march.

Backlund has been recoving from off season hip surgery throughout training camp. Friday will be start the 3-way competion between Boucher, Backlund, and Bobrovsky for the Flyers starting job. Last time Backlund started he was battling the same hip injury that forced him to leave the game after only 1 period against the Penguins.

Laviolette commented on Backlund saying: “Is he ready? Health-wise yes. We just want to make sure he gets some shots.” via the Flyers PR.

Backlund will most likely start off the season as the back up with only 2 more pre-season games left to play. Sergei Bobrovsky seems to have broken out as the Flyers number one goalie as of now. Sergei has record of 3-0-1 in the preseason, while Boucher is 1-1-0. Watch to see who gets these last two starts versus the Sabres.

Fresh Ice Cuts: Bobrovsky, Returnings, Cuts, Lappy

Recent Scores: Tuesday - NJD 3 PHI 2, Wednesday - NYI 1 PHI 3

Islanders at Flyers Sept 29th
A night after the Flyers dropped their first game in regulation during this preseason they came back versus the Isles 'B' team. The Isles had a game in Ottawa and Philly, and Philly got the Bridgeport Sound Tigers version. Heading in the Flyers had a record of 3-1-1 in this preseason.

Of the Flyers competing for a spot who played were: Marc-andre Bourdon, Johan Gustafsson, Daniel Carcillo, Darroll Powe, and Sergei Bobrovsky. James van Riemsdyk started off the scoring with an early backhander. Carter later put the Flyers up by 2 with his 3rd and 4th goals of the preseason. Zherdev's scoring streak ended at 3 games, with 4 goals.

Headlines

With the news of Michael Leighton being out for the first month of the season Sergei Bobrovsky has a chance to impress. Bobrovsky won his third game on Wednesday, making 32 saves, and improved his record to 3-0-1. Bobrovsky will challenge Boucher for the starting job and looks to be the favorite heading into the start of the season.

'Red Shirts', Ville Leino and Blair Betts, skated in their 1st preseason game on wednesday. Betts, who got offseason shoulder surgery, played well skating with the 4th line and also the Penalty Kill. Betts looks ready for the season after throwing hit after hit. Leino, who had offseason hip surgery, looked good at first but then after being hit a few times slowed down (understandably). Leino had shown he hasn't missed a beat performing a few nice dangles.

As reported widely earlier this week, Ian Laperriere is out indefinatly will Post Concussion Syndrome. Lappy undoubtably played injured throughout the Blackhawks series last post season, and now after skating for a week in training camp is out with PCS. Post Concussion Syndrome has taken it's toll on Bruins forward Marc Savard who is also out indefinatly due to a hit suffered mid-season last year.

Roster Updates

The Flyers trimmed their roster earlier this week. Of those who left, most were sent to the Adirondack Phantoms. Names included: Pat Maroon, Stephan Legein, Zac Rinaldo, and goalie Nic Riopel. Michael Chaput, the Flyers 1st pick in this year's draft, was sent back to his junior team. Tye McGinn, who was the second player taken by Flyers this year, was sent to the Phantoms to begin his pro career.

Leighton's Back.. injury

Last week's "Fresh Ice Cuts" on Ice on Broad Street mentioned that Flyers starting goalie, Michael Leighton, had to leave the ice right before the shootout against Toronto in the Flyers third preseason game. News came out today that now Michael Leighton will miss roughly a month due to a bulging disk in his back. Leighton intially hurt his back during his offseason workouts.

Now the spotlight turns once again to Brian Boucher. Boucher is the only other goalie on the Flyers to make consecutive starts, or who has two career starts for that matter. Backing him up, for now, will be Russian rookie Sergei Bobrovsky, who has looked great in the preseason with a 2-0-1 record.

Johan Backlund's name a also been banged around the Flyers community. Backlund is currently rehabbing an offseason hip surgery. According to CSNPhilly's Tim Panotchio, Flyers GM Paul Holmgren would not say if Backlund was an option. However when Backlund was re-signed the concensus thought was that he would compete for the starting job.

Brian Boucher got the start in tonight's contest against the New Jersey Devils, the game can be viewed at Flyers.nhl.com. Boucher has shown in his recent past that he is capable and willing to carry the torch for this team. A tough schedule is his biggest obstacle. The Flyers will start off the season playing the Pens 3 times in October. Their first 5 games are against Marc-Andre Fleury (twice), Jaroslav Halak, Craig Anderson, and Dan Ellis.

Fresh Ice Cuts: Shootouts, Zherdev, and Leighton

After 4 preseason games the Flyers sit at 3-0-1.

Devils at Flyers Sept 21st
The opener saw the flyers wear their new away jerseys and win in what's become typical Flyers manor, the shootout. Goals were scored by Powe, Carter, and Briere with captain Mike Richards icing the game off with the shootout winner. Michael Leighton started the game giving up 3 goals on 23 shots and rookie Sergei Bobrovsky came in to save 7 of 7 and stopped 3 of 4 in the shootout.

Leafs at Flyers Sept 23rd
A 'home' game in London, Ontario saw the Flyers go to their second shootout. This one was a battle between Sergei Bobrovsky and Toronto's Johnathan Reimer that saw controversial offseason signing Colby Armstrong beat the young russian goaltender in the 11th round. Bill Guerin and Marc-Andre Bourdon scored their 1st goals as Flyers.

Flyers at Leafs Sept 24th
The Flyers saw their second game against the Leafs in two nights go to yet another shootout. Leighton faced off against the Leafs starter in J.S. Giguere. The flyers came back on the scoring of Nikolai Zherdev, who tallied 2 in the third, and Briere who pack on his 2nd goal on the preseason and scored the shootout winner.

Flyers at Wild Sept 25th
A night after the Flyers battled back to beat the Leafs they went back to work in St.Paul. Nik Zherdev kept his hot hands going scoring the 1st goal of the game, his 3rd of the preseason. While Darroll Powe, who's rumored to be expandable if Guerin is signed, scored his second of the preseason. How would this one end? How else, a shootout. Sergei Bobrovsky played the entire game for the Flyers stopping 26 of 28 shots and stopping all three he faced in the shootout. Zherdev scored the lone shootout goal.

Headlines

Zherdev leads the Flyers with 3 goals and 1 shootout winner. The hot and cold russian has seemed to find a niche in the Flyers lineup. His goals have came against NHL starters JS Giguere and Nik Backstrom.

Michael Leighton had to be pulled before the shootout due to a back injury that he had re-aggravated in the 3rd period of the Flyers third preseason game. There has been no announcement of how severe the injury is; however the Flyers management have been cautious talking saying the injury needs to be further examined.

Black and Blue and Leblond

Even though it was the Flyers 1st game, preseason game at that, the heavyweights were out. New-comers Matt Walker and Jody Shelley were eager to show the Philadelphia fans that they were ready to fight. Here are their fights from Tuesday night's game versus New Jersey.

both via Hockeyfights.com's youtube.

Flyers Preseason: Game 1

New Jersey Devils at Philadelphia
7pm, TCN or NHLNet

The Flyers will pick up the Devils right where they dropped them off. After the Flyers fought for their playoff lives against the New York Rangers, they got a treat in the NJ Devils, who the Flyers had posted a terrific record against in the Regular season. A week or so later and a breakout by Brian Boucher, the Flyers took the series in 5 games.

During the offseason the Devils sealed their future at Left wing, then moved him to Right wing. Ilya Kovalchuk is now in place to be a Devil until his mid-forties. After a short playoff run versus the Flyers, Kovi will be looking to show the Flyers fans why they should fear the Devils.

The Flyers bolstered their blueline adding new faces such as Sean O'Donnell and Andrej Meszaros. Add that in front of the re-signing of Michael Leighton and the Flyers pose one of the best defensive talent in the league.

The Flyers will also be wearing their new Away white jerseys, that were unveiled at training camp over this past weekend, tonight.

Lets Go Flyers!

Leighton talks Growth

CSNPhilly's Sarah Baicker checks in with her latest article via CSN,Leighton will draw on Last Year's Lessons. Here are some quotes from her discussion with the Flyers starting goaltender.

Leighton on feeling after finals loss.

“I stayed off the ice for a while. Obviously, you just want to relax your body. I had a few things I wanted to get better, so I took some time off and relaxed, got a lot of family time in. Then I started working out again, and got back on it.”
“It’s done, it’s over with, it’s not like I can change the result. I look back at it, and it’s still pretty cool to see where we went and what we did. There’s no sense of just erasing that from your mind. You definitely want to keep that in the back of your mind and keep positive.”

Leighton on moving forward.

Throughout your career, you’re always going to gain things. You’re going to get different experiences that you’re just going to keep in your memory bank, and obviously that’s going to be something I’m never going to forget. You learn a lot.”

Leighton goes into a battle for the top spot this week in training camp. His combatants; Brian Boucher and Johan Backlund. With an outside shot to Russian goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

The "second year" goaltender, Leighton, posted a 8 and 3 record during the Flyers playoff run while undoubtedly playing hurt. Leighton will look to build off that and lead the Flyers to their second straight Stanley Cup appearence this season.