Kevin Dupont

The Flyers are like most NHL teams, with some very interesting parts (Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, Chris Pronger, just to name three) and a potential fatal flaw or two (that goaltending thingy the biggest of the bunch).

Based on the hour, or the latest opponent, the distant sons of the Broad Street Bullies can look like a team capable of a long postseason run, or just another of the Original 30's did-not-qualify’s. An 82-game regular season has a way of making even the heavyweights sometimes look like peewees.

But overall, I like the Flyers. Maybe I don't love them, but I like them. I'd like them a whole lot more if the had a bonafide top-drawer playoff goalie.

Michael Leighton is out until at least mid-May because of an ankle sprain, meaning the Flyers' playoff hopes in goal now rest on Brian Boucher.

Boucher's last playoff win? A decade ago during his first stint in Philadelphia.

The Flyers should still make it into the playoffs because coach Peter Laviolette has proven that he can maintain a team's intensity and focus (witness: the Cup he won with the ’Canes in 2006). They've also got a unique property in Pronger, the oversized (6-foot-6, 215 pounds), menacing blueliner who, even at age 35, remains capable of establishing a grim defensive tone in the Flyers' end that keeps opposition forwards thinking about making plays rather than creating by instinct.

Big hitters such as Pronger don't take over games as much as they put a stranglehold on them, which is more important to clubs, like the Flyers, that still aren't quite sure what they have in net. Why did the Flyers ship Joffrey Lupul, Luca Sbisa and a pair of first-round picks to the Ducks last June for the aging, pricey Pronger? Because he is not only an intimidating shutdown defensman, but he also is a key offensive contributor.

Pronger's offensive pop often gets overlooked because the emphasis of his game is the snap ’n’ crackle of his physical play. But with less than a month to go in the regular season, and the Flyers in possession of the sixth playoff seed in the East, Pronger led all Flyers in assists (40) and he ranked third in points (49).

League-wide, only three defensemen (Mike Green, Duncan Keith and Drew Doughty) had more points than Pronger with a month left in the season. His point pace, in fact, was about the same as the 13-49—59 he totaled with the Ducks in 2006-'07, which was the precursor to Anaheim winning its one and only Cup. The likes of Green, Keith and Doughty — all crown jewels to their respective teams' offenses — don't come close to matching Pronger's, shall we say, oomph in the defensive end. He shuts 'em down in his end and also shows up on the scoresheet. Not a lot of those guys in today's NHL.

Look, the Flyers should be good. Old NHL, New NHL, they've never been modest with their payroll. In recent years, with Paul Holmgren the GM, they've always spent to the cap. If they were to miss out on the playoffs this season, it's possible that Holmgren would be replaced.

For all his many good moves — the Pronger acquisition perhaps his best — he has yet to make the ultimate fix in net. His decision last summer to sign Ray Emery as the club's No. 1 stopper was, at best, perplexing.

Emery had a spotty, sometimes contentious run with the Senators, leading to his contract being bought out, and he needed a year of career rehab in Russia in order to work his way back to the NHL. Even before he exited for season-ending surgery (abdomen), the Flyers picked up Leighton as insurance. Now he, too, is out.

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This is shaping up as one heck of a finish for the Flyers. They will close the season with back-to-back games against the Rangers, facing the Blueshirts at MSG the night of April 9, then again at Wachovia Center in an April 11 matinee. It probably won't come down to one of these clubs needing a point or two to make the playoffs, but such a scenario is possible.

If so, as much as I like Henrik Lundqvist in the Rangers net, I'm going with the club that keeps that 6-foot-6 defenseman on the ice 25 minutes per game and usually sees his name on the scoresheet. If you want to make a difference, get yourself a difference maker.