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Meltzer's Musings: Leighton's Bittersweet Legacy, Quick Hits

August 20, 2013, 11:21 AM ET [93 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Leighton Heads to KHL

Former Flyers goaltender Michael Leighton, who played in only one game last season prior to being traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets as part of the Steve Mason trade, has signed a one-year contract with KHL team Donbass Donetsk. Among the journeyman goalie's new teammates are Ruslan Fedotenko, who is slated to captain the Ukraine-based club next season.

Leighton had multiple stints with the Flyers but only appeared in a total of 33 regular season games and 19 playoff games over parts of four seasons. It was his acquisition in 2009-10 that defined his bittersweet career in Philadelphia. He has long been an upper echelon AHL goaltender and has had intermittent success in the NHL. At the top level, he inevitably seemed to have his weaknesses exposed at the worst possible times.

Over the course of his tumultuous career, Leighton has passed through the Chicago, Buffalo (AHL only), Anaheim (no games), Nashville, Philadelphia, Montreal, New Jersey (AHL only), Carolina and Columbus (no games) organizations. He's been waived by four teams, including three waiver claims alone in the 2006-07 season, and has also gone unclaimed in waivers and assigned to the AHL a couple of times.

At the minor league level, the best performance of Leighton's career came in a losing cause against the Philadelphia Phantoms. On April 24, 2008, Leighton made a record 98 saves for the Albany River Rats. Phantoms goalie Scott Munroe turned back 65 shots and emerged as the winning goaltender after five overtimes and 142:58 of hockey. The Phantoms prevailed, 3-2, in what still stands as the longest AHL game ever played.

If you don't have the stomach to relive the highs and lows of Leighton's spotty carer in Philadelphia, you may want to simply skip ahead to the Quick Hits in the next blog section. For those who are willing to crawl through the labyrinth of Leighton's comings and goings for the Flyers -- and the fleeting moments of glory combined with spectacular failures and long stretches of inaction -- the following sections re-trace all the twists and turns.

Emergency acquisition -- Twice

Leighton's first stint in the Philadelphia organization pre-dated that game and lasted very brief one. The Flyers picked him up off waivers from midway through the disastrous 2006-07 season, and then waived him after a four-game stint. The Montreal Canadiens claimed him. Thereafter, Leighton bounced to the New Jersey and Carolina organizations.

In 2009-10, the Flyers lost starter Ray Emery to a hip injury (which ultimately proved season-ending and career-threatening) and backup Brian Boucher to a groin pull and a lacerated finger. As a result, the team selected Leighton off waivers from Carolina in mid-December. Coincidentally, Philly had absolutely lit up Leighton in a 6-1 Halloween afternoon blowout while he was still a member of the Hurricanes.

Flyers goaltending coach Jeff Reese worked with Leighton to adjust his positioning in the crease and take better advantage of his 6-foot-3 frame. For a time, it worked. Leighton played well during the period when new head coach Peter Laviolette was trying to get the team turned around from a first-half swoon that ultimately cost previous coach John Stevens his job. Leighton was the starting goaltender for the Flyers in their 2-1 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins in the 2010 Winter Classic.

Leighton won NHL Second Star of the Week honors in mid-February of 2010 but was later lost for several weeks due to a high ankle sprain. Boucher was the Flyers go-to starter for most of the stretch drive, but Leighton chipped in four strong games in March, including a 39-save performance in a dramatic 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Bittersweet 2010 Playoff Run

Boucher prevailed over Henrik Lundqvist in a shootout with the Flyers' and Rangers' playoff hopes hanging in the balance on the final afternoon of the 2009-10 regular season and also opened the playoffs as the Flyers starter. Boucher outplayed Martin Brodeur in the first round as the seventh-seeded Flyers upended the Atlantic Division champion New Jersey Devils in five games.

The Flyers stayed with Boucher as the second round began against Boston. Philly fell behind in the series, three games to none, by scores of 5-4 (OT), 3-2, and 4-1. Boucher remained in net as Philadelphia rallied for a 5-4 overtime win in Game 4. As the series shifted back to Boston, Boucher was in the midst of playing shutout hockey when he went down with a gruesome-looking knee injury with 15:25 remaining in the second period.

With Boucher injured, Leighton came into the game with the Flyers leading 1-0. He made 14 saves as the team went to prevail by a 4-0 score and narrow their series deficit to three games to two. Although Boucher's injury turned out to be far less serious than initially feared and he became available to return to the postseason lineup, Leighton became the Flyers' starter for the remainder of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In Game 6 of the Boston series, Leighton took a 30-save shutout into the final minute of the third period before a meaningless goal by Milan Lucic got Boston on the board. Much more importantly, Leighton made goals by Mike Richards and Danny Briere stand up when the outcome of the game was still in doubt. The Flyers won and forced a deciding seventh game back in Boston.

Leighton and the Flyers ran into a buzzsaw in the first period of Game 7. He looked bad on one of three early goals he yielded, as the Flyers fell behind 3-0. A late first-period goal by James van Riemsdyk and an early second period goal by Scott Hartnell gave the Flyers life. Briere knotted the game at 3-3 before the midway point of regulation.

The Flyers now had all the momentum. Leighton only saw 11 shots combined over the final 40 minutes but, to his credit, made the stops he had to make. At the 12:52 mark of the third period, Simon Gagne converted a Boston too many men on the ice penalty into the series-winning goal. The Flyers won the game and the series, 4-3.

Heading into the Eastern Conference Finals, the Montreal Canadiens were a popular pick to prevail over the Flyers. As the reasoning went, the Flyers were probably drained from their historic comeback against Boston and the emotional rollercoaster of the season. Moreover, Montreal goalie Jaroslav Halak was red hot entering the series. Halak was coming off outstanding performances in upset wins over Washington (after the Habs trailed the series, three games to one) and defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh (after trailing two games to one and three games to two).

As it turned out, the surging Flyers ran roughshod over Montreal. Leighton was scarcely tested in a 6-0 romp in Game 1, only needing to make a couple non-routine saves among the 28 saves he made. In Game 2, Leighton was pushed harder, especially in the first period. Even so, he had all the answers in making 30 saves for a second straight shutout. Leighton made an early Briere power play goal stand up and later got some breathing room courtesy of a Gagne power play tally in the second period and an extra insurance goal from Leino midway through the third period.

The Habs solved Leighton in Game 3 and rolled to a 5-1 win. However, the Flyers regained control in Game 4 and Leighton needed to make just 17 saves for the entire game to nail down his third shutout of the series. That included a second period that saw the Flyers limit the Habs to a single shot on goal. Claude Giroux and Leino broke a scoreless tie in the middle stanza and Giroux later added an empty netter for a 3-0 win.

Philadelphia closed out the series on home ice in Game 5 to earn their first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals since 1997. Leighton made 25 saves in the 4-2 win. He survived a Brian Gionta goal in the opening minute of the game and some hairy moments in the third period before the Flyers nailed down the win.

If the 2010 playoffs had ended there, Michael Leighton would have been remembered as one of the most improbable playoff heroes in franchise history. Unfortunately for Leighton, he would go on to be remembered -- somewhat fairly, somewhat unfairly -- as the man who cost the Flyers a chance to upset the favored Blackhawks in the Finals.

Neither Leighton nor Chicago goaltender Antti Niemi were very good in the Finals. Some of it was beyond their control, as the play was often wide open and both lineups had an extensive array of firepower to throw at one another. Some of it, however, was simply mediocre goaltending.

The Flyers and goaltenders Leighton and Boucher let an eminently winnable Game 1 slip away. Philly held leads of 1-0, 3-2 and 4-3 but were unable to hang on to any of them. Leighton failed to make momentum saves and was replaced by Boucher when Chicago's Troy Brouwer gave the Hawks a 5-4 lead at the 15:18 mark of the second period. The game entered the third period tied at 5-5 but Boucher let in a seemingly preventable goal by Tomas Kopecky as Chicago went ahead for good at 8:25 of the third period.

Game two of the Finals was the tighest-checking game of the series. Leighton played better than he did in the series opener but not well enough. The Flyers lost 2-1. The goaltender, who made 25 saves, had no chance to stop a Marian Hossa goal late in the second period but gave up a soft goal on a Ben Eager slapshot on the next shift of the game. The latter goal proved to be extremely costly to the Flyers. Gagne got the Flyers on the board in the third period with 14:40 remaining in regulation but the team was unable to come up with an equalizer to overcome the Eager goal despite a heavy push in the latter stages of the third period.

As they had done in the Boston series, the Flyers picked themselves up off the ground and battled back to tie the Finals. Leighton was neither great nor awful in Games 3 and 4 but did come up with some tough saves at important junctures. The Flyers skated off with a 4-3 overtime win in Game 3, courtesy of a game-tying goal by Leino and an overtime winner by Giroux. Leighton made 24 saves.

In Game 4, the goalie got three early goals of support from Richards, Matt Carle and Giroux. Leighton got the job done for two-plus periods despite some dangerous-looking rebounds. Leino built a 4-1 lead in the third period and then things got scary as Chicago scored a pair of goals to cut the deficit to a single goal with 4:10 remaining in regulation. The Flyers hung in and finally sealed a 5-3 win on a Jeff Carter empty net goal.

The rest of the Stanley Cup Finals were an utter nightmare for Leighton and the Flyers.

Chicago came out storming in the first period of Game 5. For awhile, Leighton single-handedly kept the game scoreless. The walls caved in on him over the final eight minutes. Boucher replaced Leighton at the beginning of the second period after the starter yielded three goals on 13 shots. The Flyers made a couple of runs at getting themselves back in the game but whenever they started to draw close, the Blackhawks would pull away again. Chicago won the game, 7-4, to move within a win of the championship.

Leighton became a permanent scapegoat in Philadelphia sports history after Game 6. He fell in and out of rhythm in regulation, despite making 36 saves on 39 shots, but was no more shaky than Chicago counterpart Niemi. A seesaw regulation saw the Flyers rally back from deficits of 1-0 and 3-2 while also failing to fold a 2-1 lead in between. A pair of goals by Hartnell, sandwiched around Briere's 12th goal of the playoffs, helped send the game to overtime.

Disaster struck at the 4:06 mark of overtime. After Carter was unable to convert a point blank scoring chance that could have sent the series back to Chicago for a deciding seventh game, Patrick Kane scored the Cup-winning goal on Leighton from an impossible angle along the goal line. It was not even immediately obvious that Kane had scored but a brief replay delay was just a formality. The puck momentarily seemed to disappear as the play unfolded live but even a cursory replay showed it had somehow leaked past Leighton near the post and had traveled over the goal line.

Without question, Kane's goal was one of the softest, flukiest and ugliest-looking Cup-winning goals in Stanley Cup history. The onus for that particular goal was entirely on Leighton. However, to place the entire blame for not winning the Cup on Leighton was patently unfair, especially after he had done his part in getting the team to the Finals in the first place.

Rather than seeking a new (and more expensive) starting goaltender for the 2010-11 season, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren and upper management decided to re-sign unrestricted free agent Leighton to a two-year contract at a $1.55 million cap hit. The hope was that if the Leighton and Boucher tandem were able to get the team to Finals once, they could do it again.

Injured and Ineffective

Trouble arose again for Leighton even before the start of the next season. He labored through the preseason and it was later revealed that he had a back injury that required surgery. It was never quite clear exactly when Leighton sustained the injury during his off-season training and when the Flyers first became aware of it.

Fortunately for the team, rookie free agent signing Sergei Bobrovsky proved to be immediately NHL-ready, and became the team's primary starting goalie for the majority of the season. At other times, he rotated starts with Boucher.

Following his recovery from the back surgery, Leighton ended up appearing in just one NHL regular season game; an ugly 7-4 win in Los Angeles in late December. On Jan 3, 2011, the Flyers placed Leighton on waivers for purposes of assigning him to the AHL for the rest of the season. He went unclaimed, and reported to the Phantoms.

Back in the AHL, Leighton played well for a subpar Phantoms team. However, his NHL future remained very much up in the air. He passed through recall waivers unclaimed when the Flyers added him to their NHL postseason roster.

The 2011 playoffs were a goaltending nightmare for the Flyers, and the handling of the goalies in that year's postseason was arguably the most questionable set of decisions that Laviolette has made during his entire Flyers tenure.

Things started out uneventfully enough. Bobrovsky got the nod in Game 1 against Buffalo and played well in a game the Flyers lost 1-0 on a third period goal by Patrick Kaleta. Laviolette made the no-brainer decision to go back to Bobrovsky in Game 2. That's when things started to get weird.

Bobrovsky had a rough first period in Game 2 and was pulled in favor of Boucher. The veteran played well and team won, 7-4. Laviolette decided to stick with Boucher going forward in the series. That decision was understandable in and of itself, but what was really odd was the fact that Bobrovsky was immediately demoted from starter to third-string (healthy scratch) goaltender and Leighton was promoted after spending virtually the entire year in the AHL or the big club's injured reserve list.

Boucher turned back 35 of 37 shots in Game 3, and the Flyers skated off with a 4-2 win. He played excellent hockey in Game 4, but the Flyers fell to Ryan Miller by a 1-0 score for the second time in the series.

As good as Boucher was in Games 3 and 4, that's how bad he was in the first period of Game 5. Laviolette had little choice but to pull Boucher after a pair of bad goals left the team in a 3-0 hole by the 15:36 mark of the first period. Leighton entered the game and played the rest of the way. Somehow, the team managed to come back and force overtime on goals by van Riemsdyk, Andrej Meszaros and Briere. Leighton stopped 20 shots through the remainder of regulation and early stages of overtime, but Buffalo prevailed on a Tyler Ennis goal.

Now the Flyers were on the brink of elimination heading back to Buffalo for Game 6. Laviolette made a decision that left him wide open to be second-guessed: He opted to give Leighton the start with the season on the line.

The decision backfired. Leighton was terrible in the first period, yielding three goals on eight shots and fighting the puck even on the five saves he managed to make. The Flyers quickly trailed, 2-0. Briere got one of the goals back but Leighton yielded a late period goal to Thomas Vanek as Buffalo restored its two-goal lead. Boucher replaced Leighton at the start of the second period.

Boucher played an uneven game the rest of the way. In both the second and third periods, he came out looking every bit as shaky as Leighton, and then settled in and played well. In the meantime, goals by van Riemsdyk and Briere forged a 3-3 tie before Nathan Gerbe put the Sabres ahead again with about four minutes left in the second period.

In the third period, the Flyers pushed hard to tie the game and were able to shield Boucher, yielding just six mostly harmless shots. Hartnell tied the game at 4-4 midway through the third period. Boucher only had to make one additional save in overtime before Leino scored the game winner to force a Game 7 in Philadelphia.

After the game, a bizarre story was reported in the Philly media that Leighton had gone AWOL following the game and did not show up for the team's next practice or at the arena for Game 7. The rumor was that Leighton was despondent about his performance in the game. The team vehemently denied the report that he'd left without permission. Later, it was said that Leighton had sustained an injury during Game 6 and was unavailable.

Whatever the case, the team deactivated Leighton for Game 7 and added goaltender Johan Backlund to the roster as their third-string goalie for the remainder of the playoffs. Boucher was reinstated as starter and Bobrovsky was dressed as the backup. The Flyers made goaltending a non-factor in the deciding game, romping to a 5-2 win that was never in doubt as the Flyers built a 4-0 lead by the early stages of the third period.

Leighton remained deactivated in the second round of the playoffs. The Bruins dismantled the Flyers in a four-game sweep. Boucher was subpar in goal for much of the short series, but virtually the entire Flyers team -- save for Briere and James van Riemsdyk -- struggled to cope with the eventual Stanley Cup champion Bruins. Bobrovsky got the start in Game 4 and fared no better than Boucher. The Bruins closed the series out with a 4-1 win.

Following the Flyers' lopsided ouster by the Bruins and in light of Leighton's problems in the 2010 Cup Finals and the three-headed goaltending monstrosity in the 2011 postseason, team chairman Ed Snider publicly announced that there would "never again" be a situation like that. He wanted a long-term goaltending solution with an undisputed, upper tier NHL starting goalie at the helm. Although left unsaid, it was clear that Snider was willing to spend top dollar on a new goaltender after the bargain-basement, load-the-roster-elsewhere approach had ultimately failed the team.

Shortly thereafter, the Flyers' acquired the rights to Ilya Bryzgalov and pre-empted his impending unrestricted free agency with a nine-year, $51 million contract. Thus began a two-season circus with Bryzgalov playing inconsistently and getting embroiled in various controversies.

The Flyers waived Leighton before the 2011-12 season started. Waived on Sept. 29, he went unclaimed and was assigned to the Phantoms. Leighton spent the entire season at the AHL level to play out the final season of the two-year deal.


Little-Used Backup and a New Chapter Overseas

As the 2012 offseason began, the Flyers were expected to be in the market for a veteran backup for Bryzgalov. The team traded Bobrovsky to Columbus. On the first day of free agency, the Flyers made an announcement that caught many folks off-guard: They had re-signed Leighton to a one-year contract for $900,000.

The reasoning: Bryzgalov "thrived on a lot of work" and would be a workhorse starter who did not need his backup to play more than a couple games per month. Leighton was an inexpensive choice compared to other veteran backups on the UFA market and he'd had a generally productive relationship with goaltending coach Reese before his back injury and the emergence of Bobrovsky.

The first three-plus months of the 2012-13 season were erased by a lockout. When the season finally began, Leighton was rooted to the bench. He appeared in one game and one game only -- playing poorly in a 5-1 loss in Tampa Bay. The organization, which had reacquired Boucher from Carolina, promoted him from the AHL to the NHL while missed time in February with a finger injury.

Even when Leighton was cleared to return and Boucher went back to Adirondack, Leighton did not appear in another game. On Feb 28, 2013, the Flyers placed Leighton on waivers for the fourth time in his Philadelphia career. For the third time, he went unclaimed. On April 3, the Flyers included Leighton along with a 2015 third round pick in a trade with Columbus to acquire Mason, who had been deposed as starter by eventual Vezina Trophy winner Bobrovsky.

Leighton went from Bryzgalov's unused backup in Philly to Bobrovsky's unused backup in Columbus. He did not play a single minute for the Blue Jackets.

This summer, it was nearly a foregone conclusion that Leighton would have trouble finding a new NHL contract as an unrestricted free agent. The 32-year-old's best bets for continuing his pro career would be on an AHL-only contract or by finding a team in Europe. The latter came to fruition yesterday.

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Tuesday Quick Hits

* When it comes to life in the KHL, some players have enjoyable experiences and others come away with horror stories. In particular, contractual irregularities are sometimes just as much a fact of life in the KHL as they were in its predecessor circuit, the Russian Super League.

Former Flyers forward Dmitry Afanasenkov is one who has had a collection of bad experiences. He alleges that he was a victim of a bait-and-switch contract last season with Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg in a recent interview with Alexei Shevchenko that, interestingly enough, was published on the KHL's English-language official site.

Last season, a controversy arose after it was announced that Afanasenkov had agreed to a contract with Avtomobilist. According the player, after coming to financial terms with the team, the club dragged its heels on sending him the paperwork to sign. The player said he could not get hold of the general manager or the owner when he tried to check on the status of the paperwork.

Finally, he received his contract. According to Afanasenkov, it called for a lower salary than had been verbally agreed upon by the two sides. He balked.

Immediately thereafter, stories ran in the local press that Afanasenkov had tried to "hold up" the team for considerably more money. Afanasenkov told Shevchenko that he "blinked in disbelief" when he read the team's account of what happened (and, apparently, had not been contacted and asked to give his own side of the story).

By this point, time was short before the start of the 2012-13 season. Afanasenkov swallowed his pride and signed the contract. By his own admission, he did not report to the team in the best of spirits, calling it a "strange situation" to be with the club after the contract flap.

Things continued to go downhill after Afanasenkov suffered an injury in a preseason game. For the next 18 days, he was unable to practice. As Afanasenkov tells it, he had still not been medically cleared to play when the team began a road trip with a game against Ak Bars Kazan. Nevertheless, the coach worked him out with the regular starters at the morning skate and then informed Afanasenkov that he was in the lineup for the game.

"I tried to explain that I wasn’t ready, because I wasn’t fit enough after a long layoff and so I would not be of much use, but the coach said I must try and that I’d only be sent on in [opposing] powerplays, to help out in defense. So I agreed," Afansenkov said.

"I could barely skate, as you’d expect in the circumstances, and yet they gave me a lot of ice time, nearly 13 minutes, which was really tough going. Two days later I was back on the ice at Nizhnekamsk and three days after that I played in the home game against CSKA. I couldn’t understand what they hoped to gain by selecting me."

After the game against CSKA, Afanasenkov received a terse message, delivered to him in the locker room: The team was releasing him and canceling the rest of his contract, effective immediately.

"It seemed a done deal and I didn’t even get an explanation," said Afanasenkov. "To be precise, I couldn’t find anyone who would explain it, since the management avoided meeting me. "

Afanasenkov eventually hooked with a team in the Belarusian league. Now he's looking for a new team for next season. The article on en.KHL.ru notes that the former Flyer had conflicts with two previous KHL teams -- Dynamo and Lokomotiv -- and it might be difficult for him to find another club in that league.

As Afanasenkov tells it, his problems with Dynamo were also financial in nature. He claims that team did something similar to what he alleges that Avtomobilist did -- promising one sum and delivering something less. Dynamo released him, and he was picked up by Lokomotiv. With his second team, Afanasenkov clashed with coaches Kari Heikkila and Pyotr Vorobyov, whom he negatively compared to the NHL coaches he played for during his time in North America.

Said Afanasenkov, "My relations with [Vorobyov] went really sour, to the point where he made this strange threat: You’ll never find another club in the KHL.”

Again, it must be said Afanasenkov was stating his own side of the story about the causes of his problems with his various KHL teams. However, there are enough similar stories out there that I think there is truth to what he's saying even if his own play and attitude also became contributing factors.

Interestingly enough, Afanasenkov had nothing but praise for his former Tampa Bay coach, John Tortorella, in the interview for the KHL site. He paints a picture of Tortorella as someone who, despite his public reputation as a bullying hardass coach, demonstrated real concern for his players as human beings and always told them that he understood family priorities sometimes had to take priority over hockey.

Afanasenkov played 41 games for the Flyers during the 2006-07 season. He scored eight goals and 15 points. The following season, he returned to Russia.

* Today marks the anniversary of the two of the most important trades in Flyers history. On Aug 20, 1982,, the Flyers acquired Mark Howe from Hartford. On this date in 2001, the team traded Eric Lindros to the New York Rangers.

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