That someone was Boucher, who stopped 20 of 21 shots after hopping over the boards to replace Bobrovsky in a 5-4 Flyers win Saturday that evened the series at one game apiece.
"Boosh is a veteran guy. He has a calmness about him," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "He can come in and settle things down."
Boucher is 34 and pretty much the definition of a journeyman. He's been coming off benches for several teams around the NHL and putting out fires for a long time, and he was mature enough to come to terms with his primary role as a backup.
But there have been few times in his career when he's had to come off the bench with so little preparation on a particular game day. There was no morning workout because of the unusual 5 p.m. starting time. And as the backup, he got to face only about a half-dozen shots during the pregame warm-up.
"Sometimes you've got to deal with curveballs," he said in a Flyers dressing room where a sense of relief was palpable. "We didn't have a morning skate, so you pretty much go on adrenaline."
Boucher barely had time to adjust his equipment when the Sabres came at him with two quick scoring chances - one by Tyler Ennis and another by Tim Connolly. If either had gone in, the Sabres would have taken a 4-2 lead, and who knows the impact that would have had on the Flyers. It certainly wouldn't have been good.
"It's good to make a few saves and feel the puck," he said. "Obviously, you don't want to go in there and give up a goal - that would kind of be deflating. It worked out tonight and we're happy to be 1-1."
