March 27, 2010: A lone appearance for a forgotten Flyers netminder
One game, 40 minutes.
That was the entire regular season career in the NHL for Swedish goalie Johan Backlund as a Flyer, tagged with the loss in a 4-1 defeat to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
With the Flyers reeling, losing their last four games, coach Peter Laviolette decided to call on Backlund as both Ray Emery and Michael Leighton were on the shelf due to injury. Brian Boucher would be the backup.
Things started off well for the Flyers, with Arron Asham beating Marc-Andre Fleury in the first 62 seconds of the game. That 1-0 lead held until the last minute of the period, when the Penguins Chris Kunitz scored at 19:02 to tie the game.
In the second, the Flyers would go down a goal as Pascal Dupuis beat Backlund at 6:03, assisted by Philadelphia nemesis Sidney Crosby. The game would stay 2-1 heading into the third; however, a change was made between the pipes for the Flyers.
Boucher would relieve Backlund as he strained a groin during the game. "Boosh" would try to keep the Penguins at bay to allow his teammates to tie the score.
That didn’t happen.
The Penguins extended their lead to two, on a Matt Cooke tally at 7:32, assisted by Crosby and former Flyer Ruslan Fedotenko. At 14:31, Crosby would again be the set up man, this time setting up Fedotenko on the power play and the game was out of reach at 4-1.
It would be the fifth straight loss for the Flyers (one in overtime) and they were limping to the end of March. Their making it to the playoffs was now in question.. Thankfully, Boucher went 4-3 down the stretch as the Flyers squeaked in on the last day vs. the New York Rangers.
Mike Watson is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on twitter @Mwats_99.
