The Philadelphia Flyers were swept out of the second round of the playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes last week, but despite the short series, they are not coming out of the postseason unscathed.
On Thursday, general manager Danny Briere revealed the extent of the injuries faced by 10 players on the team’s roster. Six of the players have broken bones of some sort, two are dealing with ligament sprains, and one, forward Owen Tippett, suffered issues to his core that have caused internal bleeding.
The list of Flyers injuries includes:
- Emil Andrae – fractured wrist
- Alex Bump – MCL sprain
- Noah Cates – fractured foot
- Christian Dvorak – fractured rib, separated shoulder
- Nikita Grebenkin – upper-body injury
- Garnet Hathaway – fractured fibula
- Travis Konecny – fractured rib, nasal fracture
- Owen Tippett – internal bleeding, core muscle injury
- Cam York – fractured rib
- Trevor Zegras – elbow ligament sprain
Briere seemed mostly unconcerned about all the injuries except the one suffered by forward Nikita Grebenkin, which could be a concussion, given the lack of specificity released by the team. Grebenkin played his final game of the season against the San Jose Sharks on March 21 and never returned.
“Initially, we thought it was going to be something short, and it just never got better,” Briere said. “Now we’re looking at different options for him.
“Other than that, everybody else should be back healthy, 100 percent for next season. Most of them will have the summer, also, to train.”
Andrae played just four games across the team’s two series, Cates and Tippett missed the entire second round, and Hathaway missed one game against Carolina. With their top offensive players all missing due to injury or playing through them, the Flyers struggled to produce offense against the already defensively stout Hurricanes.
Philadelphia scored just five goals across the four-game series, losing two of the games in overtime.
“That’s part of it,” Briere said. “But it’s also the playoffs. Other than maybe Colorado, who doesn’t seem to have any issues with offense, in general, in the playoffs, it’s a little tougher to create, it’s a little tighter. Everybody’s playing a little extra hard, nobody wants to give you an inch, and every shift seems to matter.”
The Flyers were the final team to qualify for the postseason in the Eastern Conference, sneaking in ahead of the Washington Capitals. They upset the favored Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round, eliminating their in-state rivals in six games.
