When Erik Gustafsson underwent wrist surgery last week, the Flyers knew they were rolling the dice with just six healthy defensemen.
Well, the dice came up craps Monday prior to their meeting against the Carolina Hurricanes as Chris Pronger missed the game with a virus, while fellow defenseman Braydon Coburn sat out with an upper-body injury.
Technically, Coburns injury is mid-body. Two sources told CSNPhilly.com that Coburn took a shot to his kidneys but doesnt have any internal organ damage.
We're hoping Coburn can be back within a game or two, general manager Paul Holmgren said.
Chris is suffering from a little bit of a virus. Once we get some tests run on him we'll have a little better idea but right now we're going to list him as day-to-day, too.
Coburn was injured at Winnipeg. He took the morning skate, but he is not allowed to have contact. Pronger did not skate.
Because the Flyers had zero cap space and needed to recall Kevin Marshall and Marc-Andre Bourdon from the Phantoms, they needed to make a roster move. Two, actually.
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Gustafsson was placed on long-term injury, while forward Harry Zolnierczyk was assigned to Trenton. Those two moves freed up 1.8 million in salary cap space to allow for Marshall and Bourdon to join the roster.
Bourdons cap hit is 875,000, while Marshals is 845,833.
Were just parking Harry there for a little while, Holmgren said. Its due to our roster numbers and not our cap.
Reporters figured something was up with Pronger when his jersey did not appear with others at the morning skate. Marshalls name plate was added to the dressing room, then later removed.
Suffice to say, it went back up along with Bourdons.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net.