It’s tank time, baby.
Well, I guess we won’t be seeing Sean Couturier for a while.
The Philadelphia Flyers announced on Friday morning that the top centerman has undergone back surgery, and will be out for the remainder of the 2021-22 season.
Injury update: Philadelphia Flyers center Sean Couturier had successful back surgery this morning at Pennsylvania Hospital by Dr. Jon Yoon. He will be out for the remainder of the season. https://t.co/pnA6uNlvI6
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) February 11, 2022
Yikes.
Couturier has not appeared on the ice for the Flyers since Dec. 18 — their final game before the league-wide COVID-caused pause happened late last year. The 29-year-old was originally listed as out week-to-week with an upper-body injury as he was placed on injured reserve, but the hope of a return has dwindled since then.
A lot of the Flyers’ misfortunes this season have been the result of losing key players to injury, and the front office really wants you to know that. It can, of course, be underperformance from healthy players, but the team being without their top center in Couturier and the projected top defenseman in Ryan Ellis — who is still not ruled out for a return this season, but you can pretty much bet that he will also not be back — has hurt the strong points of this team.
All we can do right now is be completely fine with this team eventually bottoming-out after they (hopefully) trade away any expiring contract and sink to the bottom of the standings for a chance to draft a pretty damn good teenager.
Just 36 more games. We can do this.