By Ray Parrillo
Inquirer Staff Writer

It had been more than two weeks since the Flyers’ season concluded with a lopsided playoff loss to Buffalo, but Friday morning the vast training room at the team’s practice facility in Voorhees was bustling with activity.

Too battered to seek relief from their disappointment on golf courses, several Flyers were dutifully reporting to Jim McCrossin, their muscular, soft-spoken trainer and strength and conditioning coach. [.continue.]

A couple new things come out of this article.
One is that Kim Johnsson has been cleared to train again after missing the last 3 months with post-concussion symptoms. Good for Johnsson, although it still isn’t unknown if he will be resigned by the Flyers next season.

Also stated was Forsberg going thru more than 100 pair of skates trying to find a pair that would support his feet and ankles properly. That’s just crazy.

Congratulations, Flyers Fans! We set records in the 2005-06 NHL season! TSN claimed Philadelphia as the #1 hockey city before the season ever started. 805,783 was the total attendance number for the season, also a new record. There was also a 17% increase in the number of Comcast/UPN viewers. Great job! Hopefully, we can smash these records again next year!

Source: www.philadelphiaflyers.com

Forsberg is also in the news by having successful surgery on his right ankle. He will recover for about 4-6 weeks, so surgery on his left ankle will be 6-7 weeks down the road. On the total time of recovery, Jim McCrossin said, “It’s four weeks in a cast and four more weeks on crutches, and then four weeks on a walking boot. That’s 12 weeks, or three months. With the six weeks (for the bone to heal), that’s four and a half months right there plus rehab. Again, you have to make sure the bone is completely healed and the ligaments are strengthened up. The worst case scenario is the first of the year. Could it be before that? Yes, Peter is a good healer and you know Peter is going to work hard in rehab. The likelihood is it’s going to be right after the first of the year.”

He also said he talked to Forsberg about his “new feet”, and that the doctor told him he “wouldn’t know what to do with his new feet.”

Both players had surgery on their right hip, and Jim McCrossin says it was successful.

His quote: “Both Robert Esche and Mike Rathje had very successful surgeries on their right hips today performed by Dr. Thomas Byrd in Baptist Hospital in Nashville, TN. Both are expected to be back and ready to go in approximately eight weeks. We are going to stay overnight in Nashville and we should be back home in Philadelphia sometime late afternoon [Saturday].”

Simon Gagne had successful surgery on his hip.
Turner Stevenson and Derian Hatcher both had successful knee surgeries.

Eric Desjardins has decided against surgery for the time being.

Flyers trainer Jim McCrossin – “Eric Desjardins was evaluated by Dr. Thomas Byrd at Baptist Hospital in Nashville yesterday. It was decided that Eric’s symptoms haven’t really progressed since he first complained about them. Dr. Byrd decided to hold off on surgery until Eric’s career is done. Eric is going to need surgery to repair his labrum [in his left hip]. He’s got some loose bodies in there too, but at this time Dr. Byrd believes that he’s not going to cause any further damage and if Eric can get through next year that would be great. It shouldn’t affect his play. He’ll have some aching in his lower back but it really shouldn’t affect his play at this time. It’ just rehab, strengthening, and keeping his symptoms monitored.”

So Desjardins is expecting to play one more year. Do the Flyers resign him to a one year deal? If he is playing injured I say no, even if he would become the 7th defenseman. Especially since as we saw this year 7th d can become #4 in a hurry. If he wants to play with a bum hip he can do it somewhere else.

Eric Desjardins – “Talking with Dr. Byrd, he said that even having the surgery, he couldn’t promise that it is going to take care of my back problems so I decided to hold and wait. If it gets worse maybe [surgery] would be considered, but right now my hip is not really causing me any discomfort or any pain. The damage is there, but I’ve been playing with it for five or six years. I don’t see why we should go in and get it fixed.”

He has been playing with a bum hip for 5 or 6 years? Hey Eric, why NOT fix it?
No wonder he has been considerably slower and prone to falling the past 5 or 6 years.

R.J. Umberger who has been playing for Team USA at the IIHF Worlds Championship in Latvia has came back home since he was experiencing ‘head-like’ symptoms, like dizziness. McCrossin states while its possible this could be lingering affects of the hit in Game 1of the playoffs against Buffalo, but they just don’t know.

Speaking about the World Championship, five flyers are participating. R.J. Umberger and Freddy Meyer for Team USA, Jeff Carter and Mike Richards for Team Canada and Antero Niittymaki for Finland. As in the Olympics I am really not big on NHL players playing in other tournaments. With the amount of money we pay as fans to watch them play 82 games a year the risk of injury isn’t worth it. I also don’t think throwing a bunch of guys together to play for a couple weeks is really a team. I would rather see true national teams going at it. That would get rid of situations like missing some better players since the playoffs are going on. Also the situation with Russia, all the NHL Russian (millionaire) players except for Alexander Ovechkin refused to play for Russian because of the coach. Politics and hockey, nice.

The Buffalo Sabres beat the Flyers in 6 games in round one. These same Sabres are up 3-0 against a faster, healthier team. So far old, slow and injured has faired better against Buffalo. Before throwing all the non-fast old guys to the curb we might want to see how the rest of the playoffs play out.

Peter Forsberg will have surgery on both his feet and is estimated to be out of action until January of 2007.

Some quotes from Forsberg from the press conference.

Q: What have the doctors been telling you?
Forsberg: Basically my foot, I don’t know the exact term but I think it’s just supination, you lean outside on your foot. It’s very uncommon, the doctor was telling me some basketball players have this. Plus I have a very hard arch and my foot is kind of leaning toward the other side and that tears through the ligaments all the time and through the years it has been getting worse and worse and the foot is getting kind of crooked, that is kind of what is going on. Actually both (feet) are doing the same thing. So if I am going keep on playing I am going to have to get it (surgery) done. The boot doesn’t fit my foot, my foot doesn’t stick in the skate and then I can’t skate. If I get it done, straighten up the foot and repair the ligaments I think it’s going to be fine.

Q: Are you going to have to get it done on both feet or just the one?
Forsberg: Both actually. The right one is much worse then the left one but we are going to have to do the left one too.

Q: Are you going to be okay for Training Camp?
Forsberg: No, they haven’t told you how long I am gone? I think we are actually aiming for the first of January.

Q: This is when you will be ready to play, the first of January?
Forsberg: Yes.

Q: You said it was four-to-six weeks recover for each?
Forsberg: Four-to-six weeks is before I can walk on my right foot. And as soon as I can walk on my right foot we are doing the left one. And then I guess it’s six months after that for one foot to heal.

Q: When did you first start feeling this pain?
Forsberg: It’s not a pain thing it’s just that my foot did not really stick in the skate and it’s just getting worse and worse. I always had that problem when I was sitting on the outside and the ligaments just kept getting worse and worse. I don’t know exactly when it happened; it’s been going on and this year I kept on playing. In the long run it’s just going to get even worse and we want to get it done and get it fixed. I can’t tell you the exact date, sometimes I would find a good pair of skates and then played ok, but in the long run it is just going to get worse.

Q: Do you have any idea when you will have the first surgery?
Forsberg: The first surgery will be Monday (May 15) or Tuesday (May 16) hopefully.

Q: And then its four-to-six weeks before you can walk again correct?
Forsberg: Four-to-six weeks before the bone is healed in the right foot and as soon as I can take a step on the right foot I am doing the left one.

Q: And then what happens when you do the left? You go another four-to-six weeks before you can walk again?
Forsberg: Yeah, I am going to have the cast on the left foot after that. My foot is crooked and you have to go in and crack the bones in my foot. Not only do you have to go in and tighten up the tendons but you have to go in and crack the bones, too.

Ouch! Although missing Forsberg until January is going to hurt I can see a hidden blessing in all this. First having a healthy Forsberg for the second half of the season is better than having a injured Forsberg all year. Second, the Flyers will have to learn to win without him, so when he comes back it’s a bonus. And third cap room, with Forsberg out for that long it should free up over 2mill to go out and pick up a decent winger or defenseman.

Some quotes from Bob Clarke from the press conference.

Q: With Primeau out and now Forsberg, what does this mean to you for this off season?
Clarke: Peter missed about 20-25 games this season so we can play along without him for the length of time it takes. We are going to have to. And we believe that we will have Primeau back. If Primeau doesn’t come back then, there’s going to be some big holes. We’ll survive until Peter comes back and we’ll be stronger if Primeau comes back. We are going to be awfully young anyway. That will just put some more heat some of our pretty good young players.

Q: Will you or do you need to know something on Keith before July 1?
Clarke: No. I don’t think in Keith’s case, that we are really going to know about his status until we go through training camp. That is the only true test. We believe that he his going to be all right.

Q: Does your line-up stay the way it is, at least at the center position?
Clarke: Looking at it, we have Primeau, Handzus, Carter, Nedved, Umberger. We could switch Umberger if we needed to. If everybody is healthy at center we are pretty deep. Again, if we lose Primeau that will be a hole we found that we cannot replace. We couldn’t do it this year and I don’t know how we’d do it next year other than throw a young player in there I guess. That’s only if we find out that Keith can’t play. If he can’t play, even though you have that cap money, you don’t find that type of player. These are problems we are facing, but we don’t know the outcome.

Q: Is there anything you’ve learned in the last couple of days? I know there’s been a lot of meetings and reviews. Are there any answers you found in the last couple of days?
Clarke: Not really. We know that there has to be some changes heading into next year. We have to change our approach. Our style has to change somewhat. It sounds like an excuse and it is an excuse but I don’t know of anybody that could survive with the amount of injuries we had this season.

Should I be reading into anything with Richards name not being mentioned?
I am also starting to feel that Primeau wont be able to come back.