VOORHEES, N.J. -- Luke Schenn appears to be slightly ahead of schedule, while Andrew MacDonald had a minor setback.
That’s the current state of the Flyers’ injured blue line in the midst of five full days before the club plays again Friday night against Scott Hartnell and the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Schenn, who has a left shoulder injury, skated early Wednesday morning with Ryan White (torn pectoral muscle).
“Luke is probably doing a little better than expected,” said Flyers general manager Ron Hextall. “He’s going to still take some time here to get healthy.”
Hextall’s original projected timeline for Schenn’s rehab was about two weeks.
“I am hoping a little before that,” Hextall said.
MacDonald, who has a right knee injury, was to have skated this week on his own but did not. His absence was projected at about a month.
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“He’s still on about the four-week timeline,” Hextall said. “We kinda backed him off on the skating a little bit because there wasn’t enough to gain. Hopefully, he gets back to skating this week.
“He’s probably a week and a half or two weeks, I would guess. He skated last time and didn’t go as well as we probably hoped so we redirected.”
Hextall said given he was still far from playing, skating wasn’t helping MacDonald to move the timeline forward.
“He can only go to a certain level,” Hextall said. “What’s the sense of having him out there? You give it a shot and see how it goes and it didn’t go great. So let’s just pull back and continue on with the other parts of his therapy and workouts.”
Hextall said White has “some time,” to got and that just because he is skating doesn’t imply he will be on the ice competitively any time soon.
The projection for White was a return in late January or early February. Hextall is now hoping sometime in early January.