My all-time favorite goalie (since I started following hockey more carefully) has returned to the Philly fold yet again. Boucher is some kind of prodigal son the Flyers organization keeps taking back. It was rather crappy of the Sharks to let him go. Based upon his stats and what little news I could get about a West Coast team (never mind them being a frequent opponent of the Dallas Stars), I felt he did a great job as the backup the rather volatile, fickle Nabokov (who wasn’t to blame for San Jose’s shocking exit in the playoffs…for once). When I read about the Sharks making an offer to Thomas Greiss as backup, I knew BB was out. Dick move General Manager Doug Wilson.
It wasn’t a huge loss to me. Roenick won’t be playing for them either so I no longer have any stake as the Sharks’ success which makes ambivalent with the Western Conference again. Only exceptions will be me cheering against Colorado, Anaheim and Calgary (until they ditch Todd “Should-be-banned-for-Life” Bertuzzi). I have to grudgingly support Dallas because they’re the parent team of my AHL franchise. I’m also starting to sweat my season tickets after reading about the MLB organization loaning the Stars’ owner money. I’ll find out soon enough.
Back to Brian Boucher!
This is his third stint with the Flyers. Obviously his first was after they drafted him in 1995 and he went on to be their starter in 2000. He helped get them all the way to the Eastern Championship but it was New Jersey’s year. Then came two years of first-round eliminations with 2002 being the humiliating sweep by the Ottawa Senators. Rumor has it Boucher was one of the people advocating the firing of Head Coach Bill Barber. Whatever he hoped to achieve by being involved surely backfired. Cechmanek got the starting job and to assure the Slovakian addition, Boucher was traded to Phoenix. Despite being on a horrible team, he went on to break record for the longest, continuous shutout streak of five-plus games in a row which is over 300 minutes. I watched him do it against Minnesota on TV.
Things went downhill shortly after this milestone. He lost out the starting gig with the Coyotes too. They sent him to San Antonio until dumping him on Calgary. Then he backed up Chicago’s overpriced Russian and played in Columbus.
He returned to Philly in 2007 as a free agent yet it was with the Phantoms, where he got his start in the late Nineties. I was thrilled. I figured he’d play well enough to make an appearance once a month for the frequently injured Niitymaki. Instead he got a chance to play for the Sharks and took it. Nobody in Philly blamed him.
Now both Biron and Nitty are gone, the psycho Emery will start for 2009-10 and the Phantoms have moved to New York thanks to the Flyers selling them to owners with ties to the Penguins. The good news is having Boucher as backup to Emery. I have a good feeling he has a strong shot at being the starter. Emery hasn’t grown the hell up no matter what the flaks say and the fans will be shouting “Bouuusshh!” when Brian is in the pipes. Emery will probably get “you suck!”
Of course, the Philly organization had to spoil this tidbit of hope by replacing two 20+ goal scoring forwards (Lupul and Knuble) with Ian LaPierre. The former Colorado player is known for his frequent trips to the penalty box. As my Detroit-fan friend said, the guy tends to win fights by leading with his face.