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In a condensed 56-game regular season, losing any player for an extended period will hurt more than in previous years.
Do you lose a Selke Trophy winner at any time during this 2020-2021 season? It would be damaging.
Sean Couturier left Friday night’s game against the Penguins in the first period with an apparent shoulder injury and did not return. The Flyers’ frontline cross was last on the ice around 1:38 after the action started, then left the team bench shortly thereafter.
After the Flyers’ 5-2 win, head coach Alain Vigneault said Couturier was due to have a shoulder MRI on Saturday.
“I’ll know more in the next few days,” said Vigneault. “That’s all I have for an update for you right now.”
Couturier was shown on NBC Sports Philadelphia showing an area around his right shoulder as he sat on the bench as he watched Flyers director of sports medicine Jim McCrossin.
Couturier has won back-to-back Bobby Clarke Trophies as the club’s most valuable player and won the 2019-2020 Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward.
The Flyers’ alpha dog in the middle isn’t easily removed or knocked out of the games. There aren’t many tougher than Couturier, who in the first round of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs scored six points (four goals, two assists) in Games 5 and 6 playing on a ripped MCL. Last season, as the Flyers tried to control his shoulder strain, Couturier still took a few face-offs. Couturier played Game 7 of their second-round outing against the Islanders with an MCL sprain.
Friday night was the second game of 56 for the Flyers, so perhaps the club had been cautious in preventing Couturier from returning. Stay tuned.
Morgan Frost, a talented center prospect, is the club’s 13th striker. He would most likely enter the roster if Couturier were to miss at any time.
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