Philadelphia Flyers Goaltender Michael Leighton Injury More Severe Than Thought

News out of the Flyers camp is that goaltender Michael Leighton will be out six to eight weeks due to a herniated disc in his back.   He will have surgery Monday to correct the problem, which was originally believed to be a bulging disc but doctors have discovered the more serious of the possibilities with the herniated disc.

“I first felt it in playoffs last year,” Leighton said. “I gave it time to settle down, and obviously it was injured and it never really went away.”

Leighton struggled through the Finals and hindsight is always 20-20, but maybe the two are connected.  He played superb against the Bruins and the Canadians before struggling mightily against Chicago.

Leighton isn’t making friends with the management either.

“Obviously I’m not happy about this now, but we certainly didn’t know this in the summertime when we were going through the contract negotiations.” Holmgren said to the media about Leighton concealing his injury.

With the depth of free agent goaltenders available during the summer, one can’t help but wonder that if the injury was known to management, would Marty Turco or Evgeni Nabokov be wearing the orange and black?

The extended time frame of Leighton’s injury will undoubtedly give more playing time to rookie goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.  Bobrovsky beat out veteran Brian Boucher for the starting job in the season opener and played well enough to keep the role. 

“The Iron Curtain” Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 29 shots in his NHL debut against the Pittsburgh Penguins and has turned heads with his stellar play.

Everything in life happens for a reason and maybe Bobrovsky is the reason that all of these pieces fell into place.  We in Philadelphia hear about great rookie goaltending prospects but we never see them.  Maybe we see one now.

The Flyers play the St. Louis Blues on Saturday and all signs point to Coach Peter Laviolette riding his hand and putting “The Iron Curtain” back between the pipes.  The Blues are a young team and they have some real scoring talent on their top lines.

I’m sure Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin said something to Bobrovsky after the game on Friday and his confidence should grow exponentially. If he can stop Malkin and Crosby, who can’t he stop?