Just when you thought the Flyers defense couldn’t really get much worse, things have gotten much worse.
The Flyers announced Friday morning that Braydon Coburn and Andrew MacDonald — the “top” defensive pairing to begin this season — are both out four weeks with lower-body injuries. Braydon Coburn was injured in the season opener in Boston and hasn’t played since (despite attempting to on Tuesday in Chicago), and MacDonald hurt himself late in the third period on Wednesday in Pittsburgh while blocking a shot.
Mark Alt has been recalled from Lehigh Valley Phantoms (according to his nameplate on a locker in Voorhees), and while we don’t know the pairings, here’s what your Flyers defense currently looks like: Mark Streit, Nicklas Grossmann, Michael Del Zotto, Nick Schultz, Luke Schenn, Mark Alt. We imagine somebody else will be recalled from Lehigh Valley as well.
So what’s this all mean? Well, losing MacDonald doesn’t hurt a ton because … well, he’s really just not that good. But it does mean bigger roles for other players, and while that might be a good thing in the case of Del Zotto, it’s probably not a good thing in the case of Schenn and Schultz. How the Flyers get through this will depend a lot on how the call ups perform.
In the meantime…
Flyers defense:
— Broad Street Hockey (@BroadStHockey) October 24, 2014
Throw a poop emoji in there too, maybe.
