Darroll Powe and his linemate, Blair Betts, are the latest to fall to an injury epidemic sweeping the Flyers. (Neat1325)
Life on the road in the Western Conference is rough on an Eastern team. The games are later, the style is different, the ice is choppier, and the distance to cover between cities is enough to drive a man to insanity.
The Flyers do have their fair share of road trips this year but none will be anything like the one they’re currently in the middle of. In fact, it was pretty smooth sailing until the Flyers had to suit up for their first real late game against Los Angeles last Wednesday.
Brian Boucher looked shaky in net at the start, but the Flyers held on for a 3-2 win against the Kings. The other two games the organization can now scratch off didn’t go so well.
There was some sabotage in Shark territory on Friday with bodies falling all over the ice. Those bodies happened to be owned by players like Chris Pronger, Scott Hartnell, Ryan Parent, and Braydon Coburn. Equipment failures and poor special teams kept the Sharks one step ahead of the Flyers until San Jose poured it on in the third.
More bad luck awaited the team as they crossed the state border to Arizona. The Phoenix Coyotes sent the Flyers packing by a score of 3-1, but the worst effects of that game have yet to be felt. Two key players for the team in recent weeks, Darroll Powe and Blair Betts, went down with serious injuries. Four to six more weeks for both with shoulder problems will mean call-ups for Jared Ross and Andreas Nodl, who both saw action last season as well.
It’s no secret that the Flyers have lost more manpower games due to injury than any other team in the league other
than the Islanders. The fact that they have been successful for most of that time is nothing short of incredible. Even so there is no rest for the weary. The bodies on the scratch list begin to pile higher and higher.
Gagne, vanRiemsdyk, Briere, Parent, Betts, and now even Powe will have missed a decent amount of time this season. We’re not even done November.
The Western trip finishes tonight against Colorado, but then the team is flying to the Island where the New York Islanders are waiting for them. They then come back home for a game against Buffalo on their way south to close out the second month of NHL action in Atlanta.
The only goal in mind right now is to tough it out through December and hope everyone’s ready to go by January. Some legitimate goal scorers getting hot couldn’t hurt either, but lately Giroux has been the one to pick up his game. With Gagne out, Carter is the last legitimate sniping threat on the team. Some pucks in the net by number 17 would be a nice change of pace.
