Sean Couturier admits to playing with sprained MCL in Game Seven

It didn’t take long to find out that Sean Couturier played through a sprained MCL in Game Seven.

Philadelphia Flyers fans are very familiar when it comes to Sean Couturier and his right knee. The injury first took place back in 2018 during the playoffs. It was a fluke incident during practice. He played 24 hours later.

He re-injured the same knee during the summer and was late joining training camp. And after a collision with Mathew Barzal in Game Five, he missed the following game. He returned for what turned out to be the Flyers final game of the playoffs.

It wasn’t long after the loss that Couturier spoke briefly about the injury. He mentioned that it was a sprained MCL, similar to what took place in 2018.

Three injuries to the same knee in the span of two years is never good. It took awhile for Couturier to bounce back during the 2018-19 season. He finished that year with a career high 33-goals and tied a high of 76 points.

So he rebounded just fine after the injury. One can hope he will be able to do that once again. There is no current timetable on when the 2020-21 season will start. The hope for the NHL was to possibly start the season in December or January. And playing a full 82-game schedule is the plan.

To do that, the league will be eliminating the All-Star Break, as well as the bye-week. The expectation would then be to get back on track for the following season. So that would give Couturier around three to four months to rest and rehab his knee back to full health.

His exact rehab time will be determined on how severe the sprain in his knee is. That could be anywhere from a few days to over two months to heal. At the time of his 2018 injury, Couturier revealed he would’ve been out for about four weeks if it had been the regular season.

That would lean towards a Grade 2 sprain. And if it’s the same injury he suffered in Game Five this season, we could be looking at a similar timetable. That would have him ready to go in plenty of time with the current expectation for next season.

We will probably figure out more details before the Flyers head their separate ways after returning to Philadelphia tomorrow.