Every game at this juncture of the regular season is so important and with just 6 remaining on the docket, the Philadelphia Flyers are set to embark on a road back-to-back set starting on Friday night in Buffalo before they head out to Columbus on Saturday.
After dropping 5 consecutive contests, including their most recent game against the New York Islanders in overtime, the Flyers will be without their captain this weekend as Sean Couturier is currently labeled as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
After languishing on the fourth line and sometimes in the press box, Sean Couturier was finally promoted to the first line alongside Tyson Foerster and Travis Konecny ahead of Monday night’s contest against New York and was brought back onto the power play with the second unit. Unfortunately, his game was cut short midway through the first period after a collision with Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock.
With 7:48 left on the clock in the first period, Couturier fired a shot towards Semyon Varlamov that was paddled aside and into the corner. Couturier went after his own rebound but was pushed hard into the boards by Pulock. His shoulder made immediate contact with the boards as he went down, the Islanders then jettisoned out of the zone and ended up scoring the go-ahead tally 18 seconds after they had just tied the game.
It has been a season to forget for the veteran, who made his return to the ice after missing nearly 2 calendar years. On the season, Couturier has just 11 goals and 36 points in 70 games, is a minus-10, has averaged 17:52 TOI, but has won 53.7% of his draws. However, it wasn’t all gloom and doom as he scored 10 goals and 30 points in his first 40 games to go along with a plus-12 rating in 19:59 ATOI.
Since then, Couturier has just 1 goal and 6 points to his name, a minus-22 rating, and has seen his average ice-time slashed by about five minutes at 14:53. After being named captain ahead of their tilt against the Toronto Maple Leafs in mid-February, he has 0 goals, 3 assists, a minus-17 rating, and 13:13 ATOI. He was taken off the top line, he has rarely seen the ice with either power play unit, and John Tortorella even slashed his penalty killing time.
The injury comes at a very inopportune time for the player and the team, considering he was finally taken out of the doghouse after a month and a half. The Flyers, however, don’t have much time to stew as they play the Sabres on Friday, the Blue Jackets on Saturday, and the Montréal Canadiens on the road on Tuesday. The hope is that Couturier should be back in the lineup for the Montréal game.
