Another Flyers season ends but the future remains bright

It really wasn't supposed to happen this way for the Flyers, at least not this season.  No, I'm not talking about how the Flyers weren't supposed to lose to the Devils; the Flyers weren't supposed to even get to the second round this season.

After making drastic changes last offseason, the Flyers instantly entered a rebuilding mode, one that will feature a number of young players who are years away from their primes.  Sure, the Flyers were still supposed to be competitive but they really weren't expected to be serious Cup contenders until the kids had a chance to develop.  Really, anything that happened this season was gravy.

So why is it still so disappointing to see them lose to the Devils on Tuesday and get ousted from the playoffs?  Mostly because of how much fun it was to see these upstart Flyers stick it to the Penguins in one of the most entertaining series of games in many years.  To follow up all of that entertainment with four straight losses to the Devils in a series of games that were very uneventful was what was so disappointing.

The future is very bright with these Flyers. Claude Giroux could still get better.  The 8 rookies that hogged all the ice time this season should only improve with even more experience.  Chris Pronger hopefully will return.  Ilya Bryzgalov will hopefully keep his head on straight.  There is a lot to like about the future of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Despite all of this, it still hurts to see them lose to a Devils team that doesn't really feel like a great team. Hey, we'll always have that Penguins series.
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Chris Pronger is done for the season

If the Flyers want to win a Cup this season, they are going to have to do it without Chris Pronger.  The Flyers have announced that their captain, who has been out since November 19th, will miss the remainder of the regular season and the playoffs due to severe concussion symptoms.

This is a huge blow to the Flyers, who lose one of their biggest advantages they have over opponents: their depth on defense.  Since Pronger is on LTIR, the Flyers will have some cap space to acquire someone of significance but he surely won't have the same impact as Pronger has in the back end.

The bigger question could be if Pronger will ever play hockey again.  It's likely too early to tell but if he has already been ruled out for the next 5-6 months, he must be dealing with some very serious issues.  Here's hoping the Flyers get their captain back next season if for no other reason than they are paying him big money for 5 more years.

Chris Pronger takes stick to face, will miss at least two weeks

Tonight we got yet another example of why NHL players should all wear visors.  In the Flyers win over the Maple Leafs on Monday, Chris Pronger had a scary incident where Leafs forward Mikhail Grabovski's stick nailed him right in the eye as he was following through on a shot.  Pronger hurried off the ice and wasn't heard from again for the rest of the night as Flyers fans feared the worst.

Luckily for Pronger, the initial reports are promising, and while he does have a cut on the outside of his right eye, there likely won't be any serious long-term effects.  The Flyers are saying that Pronger will need to rest for the next few days before he can begin exercising with the hopes that he will be ready to return to the team within two weeks.

Things could certainly have been much worse for Pronger.  Flyers GM Paul Holmgren has already stated that Pronger will wear a visor when he returns to the ice and hopefully he saves his face and continues to wear it for the remainder of his career.
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Chris Pronger named Flyers captain

In a move that has been expected ever since the Mike Richards trade, the Flyers have officially named Chris Pronger team captain.  The team also named Danny Briere and Kimmo Timonen the alternate captains.

For Pronger, this is the third team he has captained as he previously held the role with the Blues and Ducks.  Hopefully he will be healthy enough to play at the start of the season.

Flyers lose Pronger for the rest of the regular season

Just a few days removed from Paul Holmgren telling us not to worry about Chris Pronger's injury, the Flyers dropped this news on us today: Pronger will have surgery on his right hand and will miss 3-4 weeks, which covers the rest of the regular season. Fortunately, Pronger should be fine to return in the playoffs and, if anything, he will be plenty refreshed for a long playoff run.

While many Flyers fans thought to panic initially, it's important to remember that Pronger has already missed time this season and the team did pretty well without him. Of course the Flyers would prefer to have their defensive anchor on the ice as they try to hold on to the number one seed in the East but they have plenty of defensive depth, with the newly acquired Nick Boynton stepping in to play on a regular basis. Jumping into the 7th defenseman spot will be Erik Gustafsson, who was called up from the Phantoms. You may remember Gustafsson from his one game stint back in February.

The loss of Pronger does somewhat diminish the Flyers chances at getting the top seed in the East but it should have no affect on how far they get in the playoffs this season. As we have seen time and time again, seeding in hockey means very little, with tops seeds getting knocked off on a regular basis. The Flyers are going to be too busy worrying about turning around their play on the ice to worry about not having Pronger. Perhaps not having him out there will even help the team play good hockey again as they step their game up to replace their best defensive player.

Chris Pronger to have surgery, miss 4-6 weeks

It was all going so well for the Flyers, who sit atop the NHL with 47 points. They got some bad news today, though, as the team learned the fate of defenseman Chris Pronger, who injured his right foot against the Canadiens on Wednesday: he has a broken foot that will require surgery and cause him to miss 4 to 6 weeks.

Luckily for the Flyers, they have one of the deepest group of defensemen in the league. With Pronger out for at least a month, 7th d-man Oskars Bartulis will step into the lineup. While the Flyers will miss their best defenseman, they can give more minutes to guys like Andrej Mezsaros and Matt Carle and there shouldn't be that much of a drop-off.

While injuries to star players are never a good thing, it's better that Pronger suffers an injury like this now rather than later in the season. With the timetable given, Pronger will return sometime in late January and will still have plenty of time to get up to full strength for the playoffs, which start in April. The Flyers also have a long layoff in late December, so Pronger won't even miss more than 15 games or so. The defense should be able to hold down the fort until the big man returns.