PHILADELPHIA — It was a good news, bad news kind of day for the Flyers on Sunday.
No sooner had captain Sean Couturier returned from a one-game absence caused by blocking a shot in Thursday night’s game against Nashville came news that Tyson Foerster was scratched from the lineup Sunday night vs. Calgary.
Foerster’s injury is listed as a lower-body issue — he apparently blocked a shot with his foot — and there’s no official timetable for his return.
At a pre-game media session at Xfinity Mobile Arena, coach Rick Tocchet said Owen Tippett would take Foerster’s place on the Noah Cates line with Bobby Brink.
Foerster suffered the injury in Saturday night’s 5-2 home loss to Toronto.
“He will miss the next three, four games; we’ll re-evaluate him in about three or four days,” Tocchet said. “Obviously he blocked that shot so we’re not trying to hide anything. We’ll see what happens from there.”
Foerster’s absence will be noticeable because the Cates line has been the most consistent one so far for the Flyers this season.
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With the Flyers on the back end of a two-game weekend, Tocchet made it known he would keep his line shifts shorter.
The Flyers went 1-10-2 in the second half of back-to-back games last season.
“We talked about that today, why is that?” Tocchet said. “You have to simplify your game in back-to-backs. Especially get pucks to the net. I always thought teams that are successful in back-to-backs simplify their game on the second night, play that style.”
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With Sam Ersson injured and Aleksei Kolosov called up from Lehigh Valley, facing Calgary on Sunday night was only natural for him. He’s technically still a rookie but he did play in 17 NHL games for the Flyers last season.
“You don’t want to give Grade-A’s (scoring chances) all night to the poor guy,” Tocchet said. “You don’t want him to play post-to-post. You always want to play good defense. Let’s not give them odd-man rushes.
“Even if it’s a rookie winger, you want to protect those guys.”
Tocchet admitted he considered starting Dan Vladar, who was pulled in the third period of the Toronto game after giving up more than two goals for the first time this season. Vladar spent the last four seasons with the Flames before signing with the Flyers as a free agent this winter.
But he can’t afford another injury to a goaltender.
“A little bit,” Tocchet said. “Talked to Dilly (goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh) about this. We don’t want to overload the goalies. You know, it’s a good test for the kid, a good test for our team.”
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The Toronto game was not fun for Rodrigo Abols. First, he had a goal disallowed due to a high stick. Then he got hit in the mouth, winding up with five stitches in his tongue
There are some pretty bad places to get stitches but that one has to be right at the top of the list.
“There are two ways you can look at it (on the disallowed goal); you can be angry about it and act like a baby or look at it positively,” Abols said. “I bit my tongue … not a great feeling right now but it is what it is.”
Source: Berkshire mont