And Now The Flyers Have Lost Travis Konecny and Scott Laughton
By Scott Cole
Ryan Ellis. Sean Couturier. Cam Atkinson. James van Riemsdyk. Wade Allison. That’s not a roster list of the Flyers, nor is it a list of all-star candidates. This is a list of injured players. The team just got Patrick Brown back and was without Rasmus Ristolainen for the first few weeks of the season. And now, the team can add Travis Konecny and Scott Laughton to that list.
This is the blow the Flyers can’t afford right now. With the team 29th in goals scored, Konecny has accounted for almost 40% of all of the Flyers’ goals this year (7 goals and 12 assists vs 48 team goals). Last year’s points leader is one of the few bright spots this team has had this year.
Konecny got injured in the game against Boston. He was skating along the boards while being chased by Boston blueliner Charlie McAvoy. Konecny’s right arm was sticking out and he accidentally clipped David Pastrňák. As he skated past him, Konecny immediately grabbed his arm and skated off the ice.
The injury is listed as an upper-body injury. There is no timetable for his return. It hasn’t been disclosed if it is an arm, wrist, or hand injury, but something is bad. He missed Saturday’s game against Montreal. It is unclear how many games he will miss. Most reports say that he will miss a few weeks; roughly 10-14 games and will not need to be placed on injured reserve. So, the fans may not see him hit the ice until just before Christmas or so. His return will be a nice present to the team.
You can say that this team is bad, and in many ways they are. But what team out there can perform as well as this team when being down with what is effectively their top two lines and best defender? There aren’t enough top prospects left to draw from and not enough players on the free-agent market to find help.
Konecny’s absence leaves Kevin Hayes as the top forward with five goals and 13 assists.
As for Laughton, his injury is a blow to the team of a different sort. Laughton has never been a top scoring forward. He has only seven points this year with just three goals. Nope, his injury hurts the Flyers in another way: veteran leadership presence.
Laughton is more one of those quiet leaders who seems to do everything right. He’s a fundamentals type of guy. He’s averaging 19 minutes of ice time, been used on the penalty kill units, has doled out 52 hits, and has been penalized for just 10 minutes all season.
For a young core group of players, Laughton is a great role model to have on the ice. He’s the only one with a letter on his sweater (an “A”). He’s been praised by Coach Tortorella as the sort of player he wants on his team: hard working, putting everything out there. He had recently been moved from center to right wing so as to give Noah Cates some time learning how to be an effective center.
Laughton had injured himself in the game last week against Boston and has been placed on injured reserve. It’s an upper body injury, but looking at that hit, it appears to be most likely a wrist or arm problem. Without revealing the extent of the injury, it’s hard to assess how long it will take to heal. The Flyers gave him approximately a two week designation. We’ll see if that stands.