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Meltzer's Musings: 9/28/11 |
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The Flyers exhibition schedule resumes tomorrow with a game at the Wells Fargo Center against New Jersey. In the meantime, there has been a mixed bag of news from training camp over the last day:
JVR to miss remainder of pre-season
James van Riemsdyk was among the Flyers players to attend the Winter Classic press conference at Citizens Bank Park on Monday afternoon. However, he did not play in Monday night's game against the Rangers, nor did he practice with the team yesterday.
Paul Holmgren subsequently revealed that JVR sustained a lower-body injury and would miss the remainder of the preseason. However, he is expected to play in the opener.
My gut feeling: JVR's injury is a minor groin pull. That's the type of injury around which the team must use caution. If it were a bruised foot or similar problem, he'd more likely have been declared day-to-day with a chance of playing over the weekend. If it were some sort of knee sprain, it would be harder to disguise (although the team would still try to avoid confirming it for as long as possible, because that's just what NHL teams do).
Of course, that's just my own speculation. I still find it ridiculous that teams still do the whole stupid upper-body, lower-body guessing game in the preseason and regular season. The nature of the injury is ALWAYS found out in a day or two anyway, and opposing teams usually figure it out on their own, anyway.
Hartnell gets clean bill of health
The best news to come out of camp this week is that the cardiologist who examined Scott Hartnell yesterday could find no medical reason to recommend that he be held out of practice and play. As best as can be determined, the elevated heart rate the player experienced in last Friday's game in Detroit was an aberration. Hartnell self-reported feeling fine over the weekend and working out with no problems.
Although the player's heart rate now bears a little extra monitoring for signs of trouble (more so than his teammates who have never had an elevated heart rate episode), he can resume his career without undue fear for his safety.
Pronger continues to progress
During the question-answer session at Citizens Bank Park on Monday, Chris Pronger reported that he has had any setbacks in his recovery from off-season back surgery. He plans to continue intensifying his on-ice work with his teammates. Although the Flyers new captain has not been officially cleared to play in the regular season opener, the chances have greatly increased because his recovery thus far has gone off without a hitch.
Nodl has lower-body injury
The lower-body injury sustained by Andreas Nodl is apparently less significant than the one JVR has. Nodl will not play tomorrow but may be ready by the weekend. While Nodl is not in danger of losing a roster spot and being waived, he is in some jeopardy of being a healthy scratch on opening night. He's been outplayed by Matt Read and others, and needs a strong close-out to the exhibition season to make sure that he's in the starting lineup (even if its on the 4th line) come opening night in Boston.
Flyers waive Sestito for purposes of AHL assignment
Although Paul Holmgren has insisted that the club had already decided to attempt to send Sestito down to the AHL even before his suspendable hit and ejection from Monday's game, one still has to think that the club may have reconsidered if he had an excellent performance that night. However, it was clearly not Monday's incident alone that caused the Flyers' decision.
Sesito has had a thoroughly mediocre camp, and has been outplayed by Zac Rinaldo, Harry Zolnierczyk and even Ben Holmstrom (who was sent down the Phantoms last weekend). Now he will have to work his way back up on the depth chart. Size and waiver eligibility alone were not -- and should not have been -- enough to automatically protect him. Others have been him out on merit for the time being.
If Sestito clears waivers -- and I suspect that he will -- he can still be recalled from the AHL later this season without re-entry waivers. However, there is still the matter of serving out his likely suspension from the NHL first (the AHL will also not lot a suspended NHL player suit up for the duration of the suspension).
NHL announces that it will not fine Simmonds
No surprise here. There was no audio of Simmonds' comments directed at Sean Avery on the ice, which left it up to the referees to say whether they heard the alleged slur or not. It's pretty rare that a ref will choose to reveal what was said on the ice, even if he heard it clearly. Given that the situation involved a player that virtually every referee in the league despises, there was even less chance that anyone would admit to hearing it.
Look, everyone knows that Simmonds said what he was accused of saying. It was wrong, and a fine would have been justified if issued. But this result was predictable.
I'm sure the gist of the message Simmonds got in his conversation with Colin Campbell yesterday was this: "Wayne, I've been around this game since before you were born. I know what goes on out there on the ice. I know you said it, and I know why you said it. I'm sure I said it myself to opposing players during my career, OK? But that was then and this is now. We can't condone it, so you'd better not get spotted doing it again. There better not be a next time, or else. Got it? Don't embarrass us again. Now go play hockey."
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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