Flyers have some initial adversities on their plate.
First-rate pivot Sean Couturier will be out for at least two weeks with a costochondral separation, which is when one of the ribs separates from the sternum.
As of Saturday, the Flyers play seven games in the next two weeks. Flyers will have to wait for the 2019-20 Trophy winner Frank J. Selke to take just two weeks to recover. The Flyers started 2-0-0 in the short regular season of 56 games, which placed them in the most competitive division of realignment.
Couturier suffered the injury in the Flyers’ 5-2 victory on Friday night over the Penguins. The 28-year-old was forced to leave the game and did not return after taking a blow from Jared McCann 1:38 into action.
A two-week period runs until January 30. The Flyers face the Islanders on January 31 and then the Bruins on February 3.
For the past two seasons, Couturier has won the Bobby Clarke Trophy as the club’s most valuable player. He does everything for the Flyers, from playing great minutes with uniform strength against the best lines of the opponent, as well as in the top units of the club, both in the game of strength and in the penalty shootout.
Last season, Couturier ranked first in the Flyers in even strength points (46), percentage of victories in confrontation (59.6 percent) and plus-minus (plus-21), second in points (59) and pitches (185), tied for second in assists (37), third for goals (22) and reduced time on ice (140: 29), fourth on time on ice per game (19:50) and tied for fifth on points power play (13).
Couturier’s failure to return to Friday night’s game shows a good deal of the pain from the injury. It is not easily eliminated or kept out of games. In the first round of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Couturier scored six points (four goals, two assists) in Games 5 and 6 playing in a torn MCL. Last season, while the Flyers were trying to monitor his shoulder tension, he still had some direct clashes. Couturier also played game 7 of his elimination in the second round for the Islanders with an MCL sprain. It has a kind of quiet and interior resistance.
“He’s an elite player and you realize how good he is when you see him on the track every day and see how he lives his life,” said Kevin Hayes last July.
Couturier’s injury opens the door to talented 21-year-old Morgan Frost and will force the Flyers to make adjustments in the middle.
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