Flyers fall to Devils, 3-2 in preseason action

I’ll take your word for it.

None of this is at all quantifiable.

But let’s go over the games where Boucher relieved the starter and got the loss:

SCF Game 1: Boucher stops 11 of 12 shots after Leighton gave up 5 goals on 20 shots. The game winning goal (found here) came off a turnover at the blue-line. Kopecky beat Gagne to the slot from the line, went in alone on Boucher from the faceoff dot, deked him into the butterfly, and snuck the puck past him from a bad angle. You’ll notice the Flyers had all 5 of their skaters in the defensive zone, only one of whom was in position (Coburn).

SCF Game 5: Leighton gives up 3 goals on 13 shots, a 3-0 deficit the Flyers would never rebound from. Despite the Flyers never coming within 2 goals of the Blackhawks, Boucher gets the loss. On goal one, Boucher gets hung out to dry by his defense again (this time Danny Briere), goal two is a one-timer by Byfuglien on the PP, standing all alone at the top of the crease, and goal three is a 3-on-2 break with Patrick Sharp shooting from the hash marks.

March 3: Leighton gives up 4 goals on 26 shots. Boucher would give up 2 goals in the first five minutes he’s in (the first time he played in exactly two months), the first of which was scored on the power play and the second of which came off a bad rebound he gave up.

Nov. 23: Emery gives up 4 goals on 17 shots, exiting with the Flyers down 4-2. Boucher gives up a weak goal 6 minutes later, but stopped 13 of 14 shots.

So we have 1) a complete team breakdown in the defensive zone; 2) A piss poor performance by the team in general, with all three goals resulting from either poor defensive coverage, missed assignments, or both; 3) Boucher playing for the first time in two months; and 4) one weak goal given up where he’s unable to keep the deficit at two.

Obviously, you won’t change your mind. But for everyone else, them’s the facts (and video).