Tonight the Flyers try to break their 3 game losing streak as they face off against the New York Rangers in Philadelphia. The season series is tied between the two teams with the Flyers winning the last meeting on October 10. The Flyers are coming off a 5-3 loss to the Washington Capitals on Saturday. The Rangers are coming off a 2-1 win over the Florida Panthers on Sunday.

The Flyers are playing better then they were in the beginning of the season, but the avalanche of injuries quite possibility could erase any chance they have at making the playoffs. Overview of the injuries…

Jeff Carter is out with a fractured left tibia. He has been skating and might be ready to play by next Tuesday.
Robert Esche recovering from an adductor muscle injury has been skating and should be ready to come back within a week.
Peter Forsberg still looking for a skate that fits properly might have found it at Temple. We should see in a few days.
Denis Gauthier is out with a shoulder injury until mid-Januray.
Sami Kapanen has had back spasms and is listed day to day.
Freddy Meyer is also listed day to day with a sore back.
Mike Rathje is out indefinitely placed on Injured Reserve.
Mike Richards and Geoff Sanderson are out 3 to 6 weeks, January return, each with a sports hernia. Both to have surgery.

So with having up to 8 starters out how do the lines look?
Gagne has been moved back to center for the first time since 2001. At one point during this past off-season the Flyers had 11 centers. Murray is gone, Nedved and Cullen are down with the Phantoms. Forsberg, Carter, Richards are injured. It will be interesting to see how well Gagne plays at his old position.
Lines?

Calder-Gagne-Knuble
Voce-Umberger-Ruzicka
Fedoruk-Potulny-Eager
Ellison- Ruzicka-Dimitrakos

Top 2 were reported, bottom 2 lines were a guess.

Brad Tapper who the Flyers signed over the summer is returning to Germany because of concussion issues.

Happy turkey day everyone, I apologize for the lack of updates. I knew my class load this year was going to cut into my free time and the past few weeks have been hectic. Let’s review what has happened over the past week or so.

Coach John Stevens has been signed to a 2 year contract by the Flyers. While some say it stabilizes the coaching situation you have to remember a couple things. First off interim was never put in front of his title. There was never any speculation, that the move was temporary. And second like a 2 year contract means anything anyway. Just ask Ken Hitchcock who was signed to a 3 year contract in September only to be fired in October.

Speaking of Hitchcock he will be back in Philadelphia behind the bench coaching on Black Friday, not for the Flyers but for the Columbus Blue Jackets coaching his first game for that team. Good luck to Hitch, starting Saturday.

The game against Columbus is a 1pm start on Black Friday which is decent since I had no plans on going out and dealing with the nuts that shop on that day. No matter how good the deals are.

Injury report for the Flyers.
Jeff Carter is out six weeks from November 7 with a fractured left tibia which means a return mid December
Todd Fedoruk is out until the end of November with a fractured orbital bone in his face. He won’t be able to fight for at least a month after that.
Peter Forsberg has a stiff lower back and is listed day to day, although his skates are still bothering him and I don’t know how they are going to fix it.
Denis Gauthier is out 10 weeks from November 12 with a left should injury which would be mean a mid January return.
Alex Picard suffered a concussion on November 18, no time table on his return.
Mike Rathje is listed tay to day with Piriformis syndrome. He has taken all the cortisone shots he can this year. Dude should hang it up seriously for this year. He isn’t helping the Flyers either on the ice or against the salary cap. It is obvious by how much faster the Flyers defense looks when he is scratched. The game against the Senators is the perfect example.

Let’s talk about the game against the Senators. Can we get some more Finland defensemen? While Pitkanen has really looked bad this year pairing him with Timonen I think really does something. Those two and Jonsson looked pretty decent back on D. Actually having defensemen that can skate faster then a dump truck is a nice thing to have.

Even Pylon looked decent. Pylon was +2, got his first point of the season and managed to get first star of the game of which he didn’t deserve. He has been getting praise in recent games and is even not dead last in +/- anymore in the league. He is ranked 692th in the league. There are 5 other Flyers in the last ten positions in that stat Pitkanen, Calder, Nedved, Gagne and Richards, that has to change. That stat with Gagne is a big change from last year. Last year he was very solid defensively not so much this year.

A couple stat changes from last year. So far this year the Flyers have 1 shorthanded goal, last season they scored 19 of which Richards had 3 of his 11 goals. This year 0. Joni Pitkanen had 13 goals last year, this year 0. Last year the Flyers didn’t give up a shorthanded goal to near halfway through the season gave up 6 total, this season 5 already.

At least the Flyers get a point against the Senators, Flyers 11 points out of the playoff hunt. Still not playing with any desperation, the Senators are not playing like a playoff team and well, neither are the Flyers who have now lost 6 straight at home.

But back to Pylon, yes he has seem to be doing better but he has not proven himself against teams that the Flyers HAVE to beat and I don’t think he can. The Senators really did have the speed or pressure that the Sabres create and that’s the point. For years Clarke tried to build the Flyers to beat the Devils. Well now the Flyers need to be built to beat the Sabres and I don’t see Hatcher in that picture.

In other hockey news former Flyer Donald Brashear was suspended for 3 games while Brian Sutherby and Scott Mellanby each got a one game suspension for instigating a fight in the last 5 minutes of a game. Coaches were also fined $30,000 and $10,000 respectively. Bullshit rule, never liked it and every time it comes up I will bitch about it. The rule created in reaction to the Flyers/Senators brawl, because fans just hate those things.

Flyers Athletic Trainer and Strength and Conditioning Coach Jim McCrossin on Tuesday gave an update on center Peter Forsberg. Forsberg has missed the last two games due to a mild right ankle sprain, and was in Cleveland on Monday getting fitted for an orthotic brace for his ankle.

McCrossin also had an update on defenseman Denis Gauthier who had successful surgery today. Gauthier is expected to be out 10 weeks.

Jim McCrossin: “I spoke with Peter today, and yesterday he was fitted with an orthotic brace. Peter skated and he said it actually felt very good. Some minor adjustments had to be made and they were made overnight. Peter was going back out to skate again today and we decided we are going to touch base when I get into Anaheim.

I did speak with Dr. Brian Donley from the Cleveland Clinic a few times last night after our game and Dr. Donley was very pleased on how the orthotic brace angulated Peter’s ankle. Peter is happy, Dr. Donley is happy and I’m happy.”

When will Peter be joining the team?
“Peter will get into Anaheim about 7:05 this evening [Pacific Time]. He’ll participate in the morning skate, as far as we know.”

What is the status of Denis Gauthier?
“Denis Gauthier had successful surgery today performed by Dr. Peter DeLuca at Methodist Hospital in South Philadelphia to repair his labrum in his left shoulder. Dr. DeLuca feels like he’s going to make a real nice recovery and hopefully be back with us soon.”

How soon?
“He’s going to start rehab tomorrow.”

Mike Rathje
“I think it’s been an ongoing issue over this past summer and last year. There was a lot of other things involved like my hip, and due to that, it’s cost me and everybody a lot of time over the summer. We didn’t know exactly what the problem was, and now, unfortunately, it looks like we’ve narrowed it down to this and unfortunately it’s at the beginning of the season.”

“Monday, we are doing a test with the doctor, which hopefully will tell me exactly what the problem is.”

“I had symptoms all last season and basically I can’t skate as well as I can. I can’t shoot as well as I can, and it really drops my play down. It’s not fair to the team and it’s not fair to me to be playing like that all the time.”

Flyers Trainer Jim McCrossin
“It has manifested over a period of time. As you know, Mike had his hip fixed over the summer months after his labrum degraded. After he had it done he was shut down for a while and he started his rehab. Everything was going fine and he didn’t have the pain going down into his hamstring and lower back. Over the past few weeks it started building up and on Friday we saw Dr. Scott Rushton at Pennsylvania Hospital. Dr. Rushton ordered a mileogram, which is a definitive between a MRI and an X-Ray that says what we’re dealing with. This should be done by Monday. We feel very comfortable; we feel it’s coming from L5. Most of his pain is located in his hamstring musculature. Hopefully we get to the bottom of it and he can get back on the ice.”

“Our goal is not to have it last throughout the year. One, we want to get Mike’s health back so he can play at the caliber he needs to be out there. At the end of the last game he said he wasn’t able to keep up. He doesn’t want to play like that and we don’t him playing like that, we want him healthy.”

“The hip pain that he had in his groin and the pain going down through his hip is gone. His hip feels phenomenal right now. This is just isolated to the L5 nerve route.”

“If it takes surgery to correct maybe four weeks. If he doesn’t need surgery it is tough to say because we have been doing all of the rehab for it. It would depend on if they decide to do another nerve route injection. I can’t comment on that side.”

“If it’s not surgery, then maybe seven-to-10 days or two weeks, tops. Our goal is for Mike to have no symptoms when he comes back.”

Game 1 tonight of the season for the Philadelphia Flyers as they head to Pittsburgh to play the Penguins.

Injuries for the Flyers include….
Lars Jonsson with a high right ankle sprain.
Denis Gautheir with a concussion.
Niko Dimatrokos and Ryan Cote expected to be healthy scratches.

The starting lineup appears to be…..

Esche in net

Forsberg-Knuble-Gagne
Richards-Carter-Calder
Umberger-Sanderson-Robitaille
Nedved-Kapanen-Kane

Hatcher-Meyer
Rathje- Pitkanen
Jones- Baumgartner

Besides Evgeni Malkin’s shoulder injury the big news recently for the Penguins is the announcement that they were bought by Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie. Right now it looks like the Penguins will be staying in Pittsburgh, but that could easily change.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see them head up north to Canada in a few years.

The preseason is essentially over for the Flyers. The next game they will play will Thursday October 5 in Pittsburgh against the Penguins. The Flyers won 1 out of the 7 preseason games. Preseason doesn’t mean anything as they say. But with some the crappy play and the injuries starting already this year I am not as optimistic as I was at the beginning of the preseason.

Injuries

Lars Jonsson who seemed to win a spot on defense suffered a high right ankle sprain and is listed day to day but is reported to be out at least a week.

Antero Niittymaki who I was expecting to win the #1 goaltending job completely tore the labrum in his left hip. Instead of having the surgery now and missing 2-3 months, Niitty and the Flyers have decided to hold off on the surgery until after the season. He will receive cortisone shots throughout the year. We saw last year how Mike Rathje’s hip injury affected his play. I’m no doctor but I can’t see how Niitty can be decent at best with a bum hip. Esche will be the starter between the two and if Niitty will just be the backup he might as well as have the surgery. Houle can do the job as backup.

Denis Gauthier took an unintentional knee to his head during the last preseason game from Alex Ovechkin. It is reported he suffered a concussion.

Mike Rathje is still having back problems and is getting cortisone shots. Gagne also took cortisone shot in his hip.

GM Bob Clarke like myself is not happy with the performance of the Flyers in the preseason.

At times we’ve been pretty good, and at times we’ve been indifferent.

There are some players we consider on the bubble who have not recognized it themselves. Some of the veteran guys have been just OK and at different times been good. There are guys being pushed out of a job, and I don’t think they even recognize it.

Baumgartner is one of those guys that has to play better. He is what he is. He’s on the bubble. Just like Gauthier and Jones and Meyer. Jones and Meyer haven’t shown me very much for guys who should be fighting for a job. They haven’t shown the same fire that it’s going to take to be a regular on this club.

You will see on Monday who I am not happy with. There are other guys here who have shown they want to be here. And I have not seen enough of it over the course of camp. I know Hitch isn’t happy, either.

The Flyers are spending the weekend at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland for some team bonding.
I guess that leaves Monday for the final cut.

Flyers center Peter Forsberg returned to the Philadelphia area over the weekend, and skated on his surgically repaired right foot for the first time on Tuesday at the Virtua Health Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees, New Jersey. Forsberg met with the media following the skate.

Peter Forsberg: “It’s hard to tell exactly how it feels the first time skating, but it’s definitely fun to be out there much earlier than I thought and expected to be back. It feels great to be back on the ice.”

Were you able to do more than you anticipated?
“At first I was going to [have surgery on] both [feet] and it was going to take a long, long time, and from going to missing half the year to right now in the beginning of camp it is a great feeling. Obviously, I don’¢t think I’m in as good a shape as I should be right now, but considering the surgeries and everything I’m happy to be here and just get it going.”

Do you think you can be ready for the start of training camp (on September 15)?
“It’s hard to say, but I think so today even if it was just a scrimmage and easy skate. It’s 10 more days, and even if I’m not ready at the beginning of training camp, hopefully I’ll feel [well] enough to play at the beginning of the year.”

Is this a test period?
“A little bit. I have nine days to skate now before camp starts. If I’m not ready, I’¢m not ready. I’m not going to go out and try to hurt myself or anything. Of course, we’re going to do some strength tests on the foot, and see if it’s close to the other one. If it is, I should be ready to go.” [.continue.]

The entire interview can be heard here.

Good news for the Flyers that is as long as he stays healthy and his ankle is 100%.

Keith Primeau gives an update if you want to call it that to his condition.

Keith Primeau: “There’s really nothing new to report. I’m trying to put myself in a position to be in the best possible shape I can be for camp. I’m trying to become or maintain being symptom free as best I can, and then evaluate it when we get to camp. That means evaluating it with one, my family, two, the team and three, the doctors. They are giving me the room and freedom to do that. I know that [training camp] is fast approaching and there are a lot of difficult decisions to be made in the next couple of weeks.”

On looking at his status in terms of team leadership:
“They began to address it last year and they’ve begun to address it more over the summer. They have begun to move forward as though I’m not a part of the equation and I understand that because I don’t want to hamstring the team, the guys or the organization. That’s kind of why I put a timeframe on it. It didn’t come from them to say, ‘you know, Keith, if you’re not ready for camp then you can’t play.’ It’s just that’s my sense, is that it’s now 30 months since I played competitive hockey. Conditioning becomes a factor. The issue of the injury becomes a factor.

“I swear that I haven’t spent a lot of time through the first part of this I spent far too much time thinking about it, trying to figure out the outcome and trying to decide what my future held. As I continue to improve, and I feel better on a regular basis, I just feel fortunate and privileged, so I just come to the rink excited to put my stuff on and go out there and practice with the guys. I feel good about being able to workout and go in the gym and be around the guys. I’ll just let the chips fall where they may. There’s nothing else to divulge. I just hope and pray that in the next couple weeks I can continue to improve in all areas and then we’ll leave it up to a collective decision.”

Trying to become OR maintain being symptom free? What does that mean? I still think he will be retiring before the start of the season. He should retire right now, for the sake of his health.

A couple weeks ago Keith Primeau started getting post concussion symptoms again. He was expected to go to Finland for training before the start of training camp. Apparently that is not going to happen now. I suspect we are just getting closer to the ‘announcement’. I expect it within a month. Below is a Q&A session with Primeau.

“At the conclusion of our season and with the progress I had made at the end of the year heading into the summer, and after discussions with Ken Hitchcock, we felt it was best that I went to Europe at some point during the summer to do some conditioning having missed all of last year and the year before. So, I made arrangements to go over and practice with Sami [Kapanen’s] Division One team in Finland. Earlier in the summer, that was my plan.”

Q: Did you ever intend to play with them, or just practice?

“Just practice. It was going to be four weeks of just practice in an attempt to get my skating legs underneath me and to venture into some contact.”

Q: Last week you were examined by [Flyers team physician] Dr. Gary Dorshimer. Did that examination influence your decision in any way?

“I had made my decision not to go to Finland before visiting with Dr. Dorshimer. I just felt that the day was fast approaching and that I wasn’t at a point where I was ready to head over there in the middle of August. After visiting with Dr. Dorshimer last week, all he did was re-confirm my decision.”

Q: How can you describe your feelings heading into the season?

“It’s cautious. I don’t like to use the word concerned, but I’m nervous. I have some residual pressure in my head and I continue to feel as though I get better, and I believe I’m on the last stretch of my concussion symptoms, but I just don’t know when the remainder of my symptoms are going to disappear. I’m still under no timeframe, but from a return standpoint I do feel the pressure to make a decision in order for the team to be able to move forward.”

Q: What is the decision you have to make?

“Basically, what happens now? I am going to make one more attempt to get myself prepared to play this season, but I also understand that I’m running out of time for opportunities or chances to get myself ready to play. Not from a physical standpoint, but from a health standpoint. I won’t make any decisions one way or the other until I give myself that one more opportunity.”