Maurice stands by decision on Leighton

PHILADELPHIA — It was easy to second-guess the decision, before and after the fact.

Canes goaltender Michael Leighton had played in just one game this season and that was Oct. 3, in relief of Cam Ward. His wife, Jennifer, gave birth early Friday morning to a baby daughter. He missed practice Friday and took a commercial flight to Philadelphia Friday evening.

A year ago, Leighton started at San Jose and beat the Sharks, and the Canes play the Sharks Sunday at the RBC Center. A year ago, with Leighton in net, the Canes led the Flyers 5-1 in the third period at the Wachovia Center, lost the lead and lost in a shootout.

The Canes lost to the Flyers 6-1 on Saturday, falling behind 3-0 in the first. So why play Leighton Saturday? Why not Sunday?

"It's on me. I'm fine with that," Coach Paul Maurice said afterward. "Based on the way he played, he wasn't at his best, obviously.

"We made the decision based on feel. I thought we competed a lot harder around him and gave him a better chance, and he struggled."

And the Canes lost again, extending their winless streak to eight games. They're 2-7-3 and still haven't won on the road (0-5-2).

Leighton, to his credit, didn't use any excuses after the game. All the excitement of Friday, he said, didn't result in some shaky play around the net.

"It wasn't like I was out for a week or anything. I just took one day off practice. It has nothing to do with that," he said.

But Leighton did say he felt rusty the first half of the game, and it showed. While Ray Emery again was solid in net for the Flyers, with 39 saves, Leighton gave up three first-period goals and then a fourth in the second period 14 seconds after Brandon Sutter scored his first goal of the season.

"That was a tough one to give up," Matt Cullen said. "We had the momentum and got going and then it was obviously not what we wanted to do -- give one up right away. It kind of took away all our momentum."

The Canes outshot the Flyers 40-28 as Eric Staal put seven shots on goal and Sutter six. Maurice said he liked the overall effort of the team. But a loss is a loss.

"I thought they were going to play Cam today and play me against San Jose," Leighton said. "But I told them I wanted to play."

Apparently, the feeling was that with Erik Cole and Tuomo Ruutu coming back Sunday, Ward would start against the Sharks and the Canes could open a stretch of seven home games in 10 games with the strongest possible lineup.

Ironically, the coaching staff believed they could send Leighton into the fray with little notice just as they did at San Jose last year. But the results weren't the same.

"He had a baby and he's right into the fire," Cullen said. "We're happy for them, first of all, but that's probably not real easy."

As for the Canes' continuing struggles, Cullen said, "We've just got to keep playing and keep trying to get better and find a way to get a win."