Briere Suffers Groin Pull in Practice Friday

Friday, October 30, 2009

By Tim Panaccio
CSNPhilly.com

When it rains, it pours.

And right now, the Flyers are caught in a deluge.

While Simon Gagne and his doctors apparently can’t agree on a course of action to treat the two small hernias on his right side, fellow forward Danny Briere pulled himself from practice today with a right groin pull.

Briere, who has looked very trim and terrific on the ice thus far this season, tweaked the groin on Tuesday night in Washington, according to general manager Paul Holmgren.

The winger/center did not skate on Thursday and then felt pain Friday morning, leaving practice early.

“It’s highly unlikely he’ll play tomorrow,” Holmgren said, announcing the club also called up David Laliberte from the Phantoms, who has one goal and five assists (six points) in eight games.

Holmgren said Briere has been experiencing “lower body soreness”  but no one is sure how this occurred.

“It’s a tough break for Danny,” Holmgren said. “He was playing well. Early in the [Caps] game he had an issue. He finished the game. We thought we’d give him one day off and it’s gone from there.”

Briere missed all but 20 games last season with multiple groin/abdominal injuries that required surgical repair. He spent the entire off-season rehabbing and came into camp in the best shape of his life.

As for Gagne, the club still doesn’t know if or when he will elect to have surgery. The left wing was undergoing more tests Friday in Philadelphia.

Gagne had flown to Montreal this week to visit two orthopedic surgeons, David Mulder and Rea Brown, who performed prior surgeries to his groin/hip area.

“We’re wading through that process,” Holmgren said when asked if there was a consensus on Gagne undergoing surgery. “We're going to have a meeting of the minds here and decide what to do. I don’t want to say there is conflicting [views], but there is different issues here going on.”

Asked whether the doctors are seeing different things from the various tests, Holmgren replied, “Yes.”

The Flyers said earlier this week they did not see any option other than surgery. Asked if there were another option, Holmgren said that perhaps cortisone shots could be tried.

E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net