The Philadelphia Flyers announced tonight that defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen would miss their road contest against the Buffalo Sabres due to an upper-body injury. The Flyers have classified his injury timeline as day-to-day. Ristolainen missed the first two months of the season recovering from offseason surgery, but played in all of the Flyers’ games after making his season debut on Dec. 16. He has been the team’s No. 4 defenseman in terms of ice time this season, averaging 20:59 time on ice per game including usage on both sides of special teams.
Luckily for the Flyers, this new injury to Ristolainen comes as they get Jamie Drysdale back from injured reserve. As a result, they were able to plug Drysdale directly into the right side of their lineup, filling the hole left by Ristolainen’s absence. It’s not an exact one-to-one lineup replacement, as head coach Rick Tocchet moved Noah Juulsen onto Nick Seeler‘s pairing, in the spot Ristolainen occupied Monday night against the Lightning. Drysdale played alongside Emil Andrae. While Ristolainen has dealt with nagging injury issues over the course of his Flyers tenure, the hope will be that this new absence will be brief. He’s a key member of the team’s defense and his efforts will be necessary for the Flyers to stand the best chance of keeping pace in the hotly contested Eastern Conference playoff race.