Better late than never

Yesterday got so hectic I managed to forget all about our weekly Monday Man. My apologies for the delay. Today's featured hottie is Ray Emery of the Philadelphia Flyers, whom we'll use to gain a little insight into the team, namely their goaltending situation.

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Ray "Razor" Emery was born September 28th in Hamilton, Ontario. Now if you like bad boys, he's your guy. Note the following:

• He ate a cockroach found on the dressing room floor in a bet and used the $500 he won to get a tattoo that says "Anger is a Gift."
• He got in an accident speeding to the airport in Toronto after sleeping through his wake-up calls for a team flight to a playoff game. His white Hummer was damaged, so he switched to an orange Lamborghini for awhile.
• He's gotten in several well-publicized fights with teammates during practices.
• He has a python named Brendan.
• He once had Mike Tyson painted on his mask, until his team told him that having a picture of a convicted rapist on his helmet was just so not cool.

His off-ice antics, combined with some pretty poor play, got him booted off his team at the time, the Ottawa Senators. No other team wanted him, so he headed off to play in Russia for a year - a serious demotion.

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Before this season the Philadelphia Flyers decided to take a chance on him and signed him to a one-year, $1.5 million contract. Philly fans hoped he'd make the most of this second shot, but unfortunately he got injured early in the season and later learned that he would miss the rest of the year with hip surgery.

In hockey, you generally have a number one goalie who plays most of the games (and all the important ones) and a backup who steps in when he's injured or to give the number one guy a rest.

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Emery was the starter in Philadelphia and a fellow named Brian Boucher was his backup. When Emery got hurt, Boucher became number one and the Flyers picked up Michael Leighton to be their number two.

Then in the last round against Boston, Boucher got hurt when one of his own defensemen fell on top of him. So now Leighton is number one, and some Swedish guy named Johan Backlund (who's played only 41 minutes in the NHL) is the backup.

Right now, Leighton's playing great. He had a shutout (meaning he let in zero goals) on Sunday night against the Canadiens. But with the Flyers' bad luck with goalies, I wouldn't be surprised if he got hurt soon too. Canadiens fans are probably hoping for that after the last game.