Sean Couturier will be out of the Philadelphia Flyers lineup for the next month with a lower-body injury. Welp, hockey season was fun while it lasted.
There’s no reason to sugar coat this: it’s a really bad injury for the Flyers. They are a thin team up front already, and Couturier has been played Selke-level hockey this season. Losing a second line center who plays tough minutes — who was also just beginning to breakout offensively for the first time in his career — is a terrible blow to a team that relies so much on its top two lines.
At least the timing is decent. It’s roughly four weeks until the trade deadline, so if the Flyers can somehow tread water and remain in the wild card race, they’ll know what to do at the deadline. If they fall out of the race in Couturier’s absence … well, they’ll know what to do in that case as well.
Ugh, what a terrible blow.
