Tough to offer an analysis of game three, what with the Flyers not being there and all.
Okay, now that that's out of the way:
Yes Boucher was lousy, and the fourth goal was brutal, ...but the first two Bruins goals, given up with less than two minutes played, weren't Boucher's fault, they were both excellent chances resulting from defensive breakdowns, and the team's showing up not ready to play.
The Flyers talked about being prepared for the Bruins initial surge, they knew it was coming, they seemingly got a boost from Jeff Carter coming back on one leg to play, ...their backs were against the wall, ...and yet, they came out flat, lazy, and disorganized.
Laviolette called his timeout less than two minutes into the game, with the team already down 2-0, but then spent it addressing Boucher instead of the team.
On the one hand you can argue that Boucher needed to be reassured or evaluated, on the other hand it was the rest of the team that seemed to be off to a horrendous start, and they might have benefited from Laviolettes guidance at that time.
Either way, you couldn't ask for a clearer indication of how the lack of solid goaltending has affected, and sapped energy both from the team and the coaches.
I felt that at that point a switch to Bobrovsky may have provided a spark to wake the guys up. Laviolette was confident that Boucher was still confident, and chose to stick with him.
The Flyers continued to play sloppy, and lazy. They were continually outhit, outworked, and outchanced; eventually falling behind 3-0, there was a little more fight to them as the game went on, they did generate some chances, ....mostly Giroux, JVR, and Richards, but then came the killer fourth goal from Horton.
Enter Bobrovsky, who actually played well, ...but it was over. More troublesome was the fact that much of the team seemed to accept that as well.
Nic Zherdev wound up sitting behind the Bruins net, and spotted Meszaros sneaking in for the only Flyers goal.
Carter made an admirable comeback, he was clearly laboring, and probably shouldn't have been playing, but he held his own, and did manage a few long range chances.
Much has been made of the Flyers goaltending woes, and the Bruin's goaltending excellence this series, but this is not Boucher costing the Flyers the series, or Thomas winning the Bruins the series. This is the Flyers being outcompeted by a talented, more motivated , harder working team.
If the Flyers show up from this point on, and play at the level they maintained to beat the Sabres, chances are that that either the Flyers goaltending loses them one, or the Bruins goaltending wins them one. Either way it's over.
I think the hole's too deep for this year's team to crawl out of.
Hopefully, I'm wrong about that, but regardless of what happens from here on out, there's still going to be the question remaining of how a team this talented, experienced, well paid, and well coached can show up so flat and unprepared in two out of the first three games of this series.
No injury updates (which is another issue) Shelley can play, Nodl, and Pronger still listed as day to day.
I'm guessing Bobrovsky gets the start for game 4. A gamble but at this point Laviolette has nothing to lose (...yanno, except his job )