For the Flyers, the most important outcome of last night's 4-3 shootout loss to Minnesota in the final exhibition game was that the club avoided the injury bug and will enter the regular season with a full lineup.
As far as the game itself, the Flyers were the better hockey team for the majority of the game and likely would have won without too much difficulty if Philly had gotten even a half-decent goaltending performance out of Johan Backlund after he came in to relieve starter Ray Emery midway through regulation.
Emery has been very sharp and focused in his last three outings and looks ready for the tough opening week of the regular season. The backup goaltending picture is, well, not so clear.
Even prior to sustaining a groin pull last weekend in New Jersey, Brian Boucher looked shaky in the preseason. As for Backlund, the 28-year-old goaltender, has looked like a deer caught in the headlights in his NHL exhibition appearances. Last night, he turned in one of the worst performances I've seen a Flyers goalie have since the days of Stephane Beauregard or Frederic Chabot. Backlund turned in a strong performance in one AHL preseason start but otherwise has looked totally overwhelmed by the speed of play and the angles from which shots fly at him.
It almost always takes European goalies at least a half-season to adjust to the smaller rink and to start coming out a little furter in their crease. But I fear -- and certainly hope that I'm proven wrong -- that Backlund simply isn't an NHL caliber goaltender.
If you would have asked me last season whom I thought the best goaltenders in Sweden were (regardless of their statistics), I would have said that I thought Jonas Gustavsson was by far having the most dominant campaign but that Florida Panthers prospect Jacob Markström was showing the best long-range upside.
Beyond those two no-brainer picks, I thought former NHL Johan Holmqvist looked like he could still be a serviceable NHL backup and Stefan Liv (who spent one season in the Red Wings minor league system) was his usual entertaining self and a very good Euro league goalie. I'd have slotted Backlund next, and said that I thought he could be an outstanding ECHL goalie or a decent AHL one.
As far as being an NHL goalie, I didn't see it in Backlund but then again I never understood what any NHL club ever saw in the smaller Mikael Tellqvist and he was an adequate backup. I hope Backlund comes on and shows why the organization believes he can be an NHLer after an adjustment period, but he sure hasn't shown it so far.
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Last night in the pressbox, much of the talk focused on the unsigned Blair Betts. Later today, Tim will blog about and post a link to his story on the Flyers final roster decisions.
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