NHL Playoffs 2012: Philadelphia Flyers: A Look at Injuries the Team Overcame

The Flyers have put on quite a show thus far in the Stanley Cup playoffs. In a strange way, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Flyers have switched roles. The Flyers normally would be the team that would try to beat everyone up on the opposing team rather than the one beating the opposing team in the number of goals scored. 

The Flyers had played great hockey late in the season and are continuing that in the playoffs. Scoring 16 goals in two games has shown they have exposed the Penguins. Get under the Penguins' skin and they will be off their game. 

With all of the injuries to key players, the Flyers have had to maneuver quite a bit more than they would have liked, but so far it has worked out well for them.   

The series against the Penguins (regardless of its outcome) will be remembered for its physical nature and lack of defense (32 goals between the two teams in three games says a lot).

The Flyers had to deal with a lot of injuries up to this point. Here are the injuries that they had to encounter in the 82 game season. 

Andreas Lilja

Missing Lilja went unnoticed for the most part. The former Detroit Red Wings' defenseman was a key part to the Flyers depth on the blue line. He missed 12 games due to a lower-body injury. Now healthy again, the Flyers have the depth they sought out when they signed Lilja. 

The Helsingborg, Sweden native is currently in his 11th season in the NHL. His numbers are nothing to rave about. It is his ability to move his big body and get it in the way of passing and shooting lanes of the opponent. 

Andrej Meszaros

Meszaros was brought in by Paul Holmgren to improve on the depth of the Flyers blue line. With both Chris Pronger and Meszaros down, the blue line was really suffering. With Andreas Lilja also suffering injury, the Flyers had to call up several players from the Adirondack Phantoms to fill the lineup. The team had a lot of trouble winning games after that. 

The Flyers needed to make a move if they had any shot of making a run at the Stanley Cup. Flyers general manager, Paul Holmgren made separate trades around the trade deadline for Niklas Grossman and Pavel Kubina and both players have settled the Flyers down. With Coburn, Carle, Lilja, Kubina, and Grossman, the Flyers' blue line became stable again. 

Meszaros is still on injured reserve with back issues. He had surgery on March 21 to remove a disc fragment. The recovery time for the surgery is expected to be eight weeks. He played in 62 games this year for the Flyers before going down with the injury. 

Brayden Schenn

Schenn missed 26 games this season. Most of them came early in the season. He played in only eight games before the turn of the calendar because of a broken foot at the beginning of the year and a concussion in December. In those eight games, Schenn did not register a single point. 

It was perhaps the Winter Classic that got Schenn started. He scored his first NHL goal in the Winter Classic. It came from a rebound that bounced off of Henrik Lundqvist's left pad and came right to the tape of Schenn's stick for an easy goal. 

Schenn finished the regular season with a lot of playing time. It was Schenn's first extended stay in the NHL. Prior to being traded to the Flyers for Mike Richards and  Rob Bordson from the Los Angeles Kings, Schenn only had eight NHL games in two seasons. In 54 games he scored 12 times and had six assists for 18 points total. 

So far in the playoffs, Schenn has found himself not only as a scoring presence but also showing his physical side. Schenn has tried to fight Sidney Crosby twice and made one of the best checks thus far in the playoffs. It was a clean hit but Arron Asham retaliated with a blatant cross-check to Schenn's throat. 

Schenn has a goal and four assists in three games in his first quest for the Stanley Cup. 

Daniel Briere

Danny Briere has proven to be Mr. Playoff. Over the span of his career, Briere has been consistently better during the playoffs then the regular season. He missed nine games this year and his numbers were down significantly from past years. He scored just 16 goals and 33 assists for 49 points during the regular season.  

The veteran forward may be undersized, but that is what has made him such a pest for teams trying to defend him, especially in the playoffs. So far, the Penguins have had a hard time containing the French-Canadian forward. 

Briere missed nine games this year. In the April Fools Day brawl that set the stage for the series against the Penguins. Briere was hit hard by Joe Vitale and could have knocked Briere out of action for months. The brawl began seconds later. Afterward, he was listed as out indefinitely with an upper back contusion but he returned for the playoffs and has already proven why he is a better player during the playoffs. 

Nicklas Grossman

The Flyers acquired Grossman in a trade with the Dallas Stars. The Flyers sent two draft picks to pick up the 27-year-old Stockholm, Sweden product. At the time of the trade, Grossman led the Stars with 100 blocked shots. 

Grossman was brought in to add to the Flyers' depth on the blue line. There was a possibility that the trade would have been for nothing when he was injured against the Pittsburgh Penguins on April 1. Along with Briere, Grossman was expected to miss time but was expected to be back for the playoffs. Again, like Briere, Grossman returned for the playoffs and has played in all three playoff games so far. 

James Van Reimsdyk

JvR as he's known to Flyers fans was the only hope in the Stanley Cup playoffs last season. He showed what he is capable of not only scoring, but the ability to use his size to take over the game. In the playoffs alone, van Reimsdyk scored seven goals in 11 games. 

This year, JvR was having a solid season before going down with a concussion. He missed 15 games before returning during a month of absence. At the beginning of March, van Reimsdyk went to block a shot from the Islanders' Milan Jurcina. The shot hit JvR and broke his foot. Since then, he has been required to wear a walking boot. 

In the end, the powerful left winger had 11 goals and 13 assists for 25 points in 43 games. 

As of now, JvR could still return to the lineup. It's just a matter of Paul Holmgren letting him play. 

"I'm just taking it day-by-day right now," van Riemsdyk told NHL.com. "I'm on the right path so I'm just going to keep worrying about that. You just have to take it one game at a time and when your number gets called be ready to go."

Claude Giroux

There was quite a scare in Philadelphia when their star and leading scorer went down with a concussion after a collision with teammate Wayne Simmonds. Fans, player and media feared the worst with Sidney Crosby's nagging concussion issues. Giroux was listed as "out indefinitely." Despite the immediate concern for their star, Giroux only missed four games. 

While viewers watched HBO's NHL 24/7, "G" as he was known, could be seen being examined by the Flyers medical staff on multiple occasions. His recovery was incredibly quick and Giroux completed his best year of his career. In his first game back from the concussion, G had a four-point game against the Dallas Stars on December 21, 2011. 

He finished the season 28 goals and 65 assists for 93 points. G is hoping to repeat what he did in the Flyers Eastern Conference title season in 2010. In 23 playoff games, he scored 10 goals and 11 assists for 21 points. So far this year, in three games he has four goals and four assists for eight points. 

Chris Pronger

Despite being one of the oldest guys in the Flyers' lineup, Pronger is so valuable. In his first year, he helped the Flyers reach the Stanley Cup finals and an Eastern Conference Championship. He became the Flyers' captain this year after Paul Holmgren overhauled the Flyers' lineup in the summer. 

It wasn't just one injury in particular that kept Pronger out for this extended period. He first received a high stick to the eye that forced him to miss six games. Upon his return, he was sidelined again just after Thanksgiving when he needed surgery "to remove loose bodies from his left knee."

It was several weeks later, on December 15, 2011, Pronger was ruled out for the rest of the 2011-12 season including the playoffs, because of post-concussion syndrome. 

When your captain goes down, it is not good. Eric Lindros' absence back in the 1990s hurt the Flyers. People expected Pronger's absence to do the same. They were right. The Flyers lack of depth showed, and the moves at the trade deadline have stabilized the entire team. 

The Flyers are playing good hockey at the moment. Some would say that it would not be possible for the Flyers to play good hockey without their leader. 

Pronger only played in 13 games for the Flyers this season and averaged just short of a point per game. 

Pronger has not had many games with the "C" on his sweater for the Flyers. Who knows how the Flyers would be doing with Pronger in the lineup? Maybe they become the Stanley Cup favorites.

Regardless, it does not matter. The Flyers have shown they can function without Pronger, which is neither a good thing nor a bad thing.