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UPDATE on Meszaros

March 19, 2012, 10:12 PM ET [4 Comments]
Tim Panaccio
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren announced on WED that Andrej Meszaros had successful surgery today to remove a disk fragment in his back.

Rehab begins in one week.

**




After Howard Eskin released on Twitter that defenseman Andrej Meszaros would need surgery to repair a disk fragment in his back, the Flyers reluctantly acknowledged the same, less tha three hours after saying his status had remained unchanged.

Strangely, Meszaros, who has missed the last 9 games, was seen bouncing around the facility one day, then limping badly the next within the past two weeks.The back injury had been rumored for several days but the team stayed mum.

The secrecy about Flyer injuries has risen to unprecedented proportions lately, and leads to all kinds of conjecture, but that apparently is okay with the NHL under the Ken Holland rule of "upper and lower body" injury application.

Meszaros will miss 6-8 weeks. That implies the Flyers need to go deep into the playoff to see his return.

My feeling is, the team has turned the corner defensively thanks in larger part to Nicklas Grossmann and lesser part to Pavel Kubina (upper body).

The Flyers are less offensive without Meszaros but seem better situated defensively with the changes they made before the deadline. Meszaros' experience can't be understated in a long playoff run but the Flyers are doing quite well back there and they have goalie Ilya Bryzgalov to thank, as well.

In other words, they have no excuse for not being able to bide time. PGH survived without Kris Letang.

Flyers should, as well.
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