Not the news Flyers fans want to see after yesterday's exciting OT win over the Penguins.
The team announced Monday evening that Andrej Meszaros will undergo surgery to remove a disc fragment in his back. This typically takes about 6-8 weeks of recovery time. We still don't know when Pavel Kubina will return from his injury, and Andreas Lilja missed yesterday's game after taking a deflected shot to the neck on Saturday.
There is no bright side to the loss of a strong defender like Meszaros, but despite various ailments to a slew of Flyers d-men, they're playing some of their best hockey right now, including holding good teams to low outputs. With a corps consisting of Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn, Matt Carle, Nick Grossmann, Erik Gustafsson, and Brandon Manning, the Flyers still held the NHL's hottest team to two goals in regulation. The day before, they did the same to the Bruins despite losing Lilja without a 6th d-man dressed. And two weeks in a row, Ilya Bryzgalov has been named the NHL's first star.
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Bryzgalov has posted four shutouts in the nine games Meszaros has missed, and the Flyers have lost only twice during this absence. Don't mistake that for sentiment that Meszaros was expendable though.
They've managed to weather the storm, and then some, but can this please be the end of the injuries to our defensemen?
Homer's looking great for picking up Grossmann in particular, but also Kubina, provided he can return soon.
The surgery news was first reported by Howard Eskin.
News
Philadelphia Flyers
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@NHLFlyers
#Flyers INJURY UPDATE: Andrej Meszaros will undergo surgery to remove a small disc fragment in his lower back on Wed., Mar. 21
19 Mar 12
Frank Seravalli
@DNFlyersThe usual return for a herniated disc repair is about 6-to-8 weeks, as Ryan Parent and Michael Leighton both went through it.
19 Mar 12
Philadelphia Flyers
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@NHLFlyers
MORE... Meszaros surgery will be performed by Dr Alex Vaccaro at Thomas Jefferson Hospital. Andrej will be out 6-8 weeks.
19 Mar 12