February 05, 2016
Making the playoffs just became that much more difficult for the Philadelphia Flyers.
The team announced that Sean Couturier, the 23-year-old forward that centers the second line, will miss approximately four weeks with one of those ultra-specific lower-body injuries. The re-injury occurred in Thursday night's 6-3 victory over the Nashville Predators. From Sam Carchidi:
"It's a big loss for us, but we have other guys who will fill in and need to pick up the slack," general manger Ron Hextall said. "No one will replace Coots; it's got to be a group effort. I like the resiliency of our team, and we have to continue with it."
Hextall could have stopped after, “It’s a big loss.” The Flyers have basically been a two-line team all season, and after signing a six-year extension in the summer, Couturier has largely taken a step forward as a two-way center. He was even getting some Selke buzz.
Taking a look at some of my rough math, the Flyers become a worse possession team when Couturier is out of the lineup. More importantly, they don’t win many games.
| Record | Corsi-For | |
| Entire season | 23-18-8 | 49.8 |
| Without Coots | 2-6-1 | 47.5 |
The “not winning many games” part is a problem for a team that still has to play 13 games in 24 days just this month. As of today, the Flyers currently sit four points back of current wild-card leaders Detroit and New Jersey, but they have multiple games in hand on each. Couturier missed three games before the All-Star break, and Ron Hextall told reporters that the injury he suffered against Nashville on Thursday was the same one.
The Flyers have also recalled forward Nick Cousins from the Phantoms. He played in four games earlier this season (all wins, mind you), failing to record a point in any of them.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
