Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

Claude Giroux should worry more about his zero points and minus-2 rating in Game 1 than whether he had any blood from a high stick.

The even worse news for Philly after losing Game 1: Chicago is capable of playing much, much better.

CHICAGO -- Cut! This isn't how it went for Rudy or Seabiscuit.

When you work as long and hard as Michael Leighton did to get this once-in-a-lifetime, Game 1 start in the Stanley Cup Final, we expect a storybook ending, not an unmitigated disaster.

But this wasn't Hollywood, and alas, the journeyman with all the minor league jerseys hanging in his basement didn't make the big save.

In fact, he didn't make any saves of a significant nature before being yanked 35:18 into a loosely played 6-5 Chicago victory. Leighton stopped 15 of 20 shots and got the hook in a game he has dreamed of playing... only since he was about five years old.

"Yes, it's tough (to handle)," he admitted. "But we know that, all around defensively, we didn't have a good game. In order to beat this team, we have to play better defensively, and I have to be better. I have to make some saves at key times."

Antti Niemi was better in the Chicago net, but not by much. In fact the best goalie in the building in Game 1 was likely John Garrett. Or Tony Esposito. Or Kelly Hrudey…

Yes, on the day Roy Halladay gave baseball a perfect game, a pair of Stanley Cup goalies could barely make contact.

"Am I disappointed I got pulled? Of course," Leighton said. "But every time they got a good opportunity they were scoring goals. I've got to make a few of those saves."

The question now hangs over the Flyers with a crucial Game 2 on the horizon: Are the credits beginning to run on the Mike Leighton Story, like they did with Jaroslav Halak and the Montreal Canadiens, before the screening is done?

That is for Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette to figure out, now that Brian Boucher is a healthy and viable option again. Boucher came on to stop 11 of 12 shots, only allowing Tomas Kopecky's winner.

No one knows what is yet to transpire in this series, but history tells us one thing: When you are the underdog and the visitor, as Philly is, in Games 1 and 2, and you catch the home team playing as loose and carelessly as the Blackhawks did in Game 1, you had better win.

Especially when you are Philly, one of the most penalized teams this spring, and you played the entire game without allowing your opponent a single power play.

Because here is the bad news, courtesy Chicago centre John Madden: "We can play 100 times better than we did tonight."

And that is a fact.

This was like a time machine trip back to the Live Puck Era, a trip back to the days when goalies wore tiny pads and teams didn't play defensive systems. If you closed your eyes, you could see yourself inside the old Chicago Stadium, when Murray Bannerman or Warren Skorodenski were parlaying their Swiss cheese brand of netminding into another .786 saves percentage.

You want goals?

They don't fill the cage like this on the Most Dangerous Catch.

"I'm sure NBC is happy for the ratings with all the goals," quipped Philly's Scott Hartnell. "We've got to tighten up. We're looking for a better effort from everyone -- goalies, through the defence, to the forwards coming back."

For two periods this more closely resembled an all-star game than the opening game of the most important series of the season. The Hawks cruised through their defensive zone like floats in the Rose Bowl parade, with the Flyers firing home rebounds one after the next.

You wonder how it is that in a game this anticipated -- with so much on the line -- two teams could let their defensive intensity stoop this low. Look, we love the goals, but this looked like preseason hockey at times.

"I don't have an answer on that," said Chris Pronger, who was very good in Game 1, playing 32:21 with two assists and a plus-2. "A lot of mental errors. But everyone has a little experience now, get their feet underneath them. We'll look at a little tape (today), and tighten things up for Monday."

The much ballyhooed No. 1 line of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien had as forgettable a Stanley Cup debut as you could imagine, evenly splitting up a minus-9 night. The Flyers top line was shut out as well.

In the battle of captains, Toews and Mike Richards combined on zero points and a minus-5.

The Pronger-Byfuglien matchup never materialized. And Leighton, for whom forests fell to chronicle his achievements, watched the final 25 minutes from the bench.

See? You can never trust a sportswriter.

Except the one telling you this: The Flyers blew a huge opportunity Saturday night in Chicago. There won't get a worse effort from Chicago for the rest of the series.