In a condensed regular season of 56 games, losing any player over a long period of time will hurt more compared to previous years.
Losing a Selke Trophy winner anytime this season 2020-21? That would be harmful.
Sean Couturier left the Friday night game against the Penguins during the first period and did not return to the middle stanza. The Flyers’ first-rate pivot was the last on the ice at around 1:38 pm the start of the action and then didn’t stay on the bench for the rest of the period, according to NBC Sports Philadelphia announcer Jim Jackson.
The reason for Couturier’s departure is unknown. The team did not have an immediate update on their status.
Couturier was shown on the NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcast pointing to an area around his right shoulder while on the bench while looking at Flyers’ director of sports medicine, Jim McCrossin.
Couturier won consecutive Bobby Clarke Trophies as the club’s most valuable player and took home the 2019-20 Frank J. Selke Trophy as NHL’s best defensive striker.
The Flyers’ alpha dog in the middle is not easily kept out or eliminated from games. There are not many more resistant than Couturier, who in the first round of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs 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, Couturier still had some direct clashes. Couturier played game 7 of his elimination in the second round for the Islanders with an MCL sprain.
Friday night was Game 2 of 56 for the Flyers, so maybe they’re missing out on the side of caution with whatever has prevented Couturier from getting back on the ice. Stay tuned.
Morgan Frost, a talented potential player, is the club’s 13th striker. He would probably enter the squad if Couturier lost at any moment.
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