Flyers Season Slipping Further Away
It was recently reported that the Philadelphia Flyers would be without the services of backup-turned-starter Michael Leighton in goal. O.K., that seemed alright, they could still roll with the punches, and they showed it with a gritty win against Boston last week.
Then this weekend happened. The Flyers played a home-and-home with Atlanta on back to back night, and lost both games. Not only that, but the goalie they hoped would be a stopgap, Brian Boucher, stopped only 51 of 59 shots. Now they're doing things backwards and adding injury to insult, as it is now reported that top-line center Jeff Carter will now miss the next three to four weeks with a broken bone in his left foot.
This throws yet another monkey wrench into the plans. Carter is currently the team leader in both goals (33) and points(60), so to lose the most productive offensive player from an already struggling attack hurts. The pain may be felt further in how the Flyers wind up reshuffling their lines to accommodate the injury.
The timeline for the injury brings Carter back for the team's season finale against the Rangers, but more likely for the playoffs. If Philly even makes it in, that is. The Flyers are currently sitting in sixth in the Eastern Conference.
They get a couple of potentially easy games this week against Ottawa and Minnesota, but then must face Pittsburgh and New Jersey on consecutive nights this weekend, followed by games against Montreal and Detroit the weekend after.
Meanwhile, the teams directly below them - Montreal, Boston and Atlanta, each have four games left against the bottom-dwellers of the East. Don't look now, Flyers fans, but he injury bug may have just sucked up what little life your team had left.
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