Some unfortunate news coming from the Flyers this evening, about 90 minutes before their game in New Jersey:
INJURY UPDATE: #Flyers defenseman Michael Del Zotto will miss 7-10 days with an upper-body injury. → http://t.co/LRPlTORbs7
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) March 8, 2015
Del Zotto left yesterday’s game in the first period after blocking a shot that hit his foot, but returned at the start of the second period and played the rest of the game, so it’s interesting to see that his injury is being termed as an “upper-body” injury. It’s unclear where in that game MDZ may have suffered that injury.
In any case, the Flyers will now be without Del Zotto for what would be, based on the given timeframe, somewhere between three and six games. It should be interesting to see how they replace him, given that he’s been playing a ton of minutes in the past few months:
MDZ’s been playing a lotttttta minutes the last two months. Interesting to see how they replace those. pic.twitter.com/ZF8RaGlKqH
— Kurt (@Kurt_BSH) March 8, 2015
(Side note: Del Zotto plays 23 minutes a night and the Flyers still prioritize re-signing Nick Schultz first? I don’t get you, Flyers.)
He’s essentially been the team’s number one defenseman since Braydon Coburn was traded last week, so this is a fairly significant loss for the Flyers, who will now have to see some other people step up in his absence. The team called up Brandon Manning yesterday, and with Nicklas Grossmann still out with an “upper-body injury”, Manning figures to slot right into the lineup.
