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MACDONALD OUT 4-TO-6 WEEKS WITH LOWER-BODY INJURY
Veteran Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald will miss four to six weeks with a lower-body injury, according to Flyers general manager Ron Hextall. The injury occurred while the Flyers while killing a penalty near the middle stages of the third period of Saturday afternoon's 2-1 win against the Edmonton Oilers at the Wells Fargo Center.
MacDonald blocked a shot by Edmonton forward Milan Lucic, taking the puck seemingly near his kneecap. Laboring, MacDonald somehow got back to make a diving sweep check to break up a scoring chance and later cleared the puck out of the zone. After the game, MacDonald hobbled a bit as he moved about the locker room but he said the injury "was just a stinger" and that he felt OK afterwards.
Teammates and head coach Dave Hakstol
lavished praise on the alternate captain's quiet grit. One day later, the team learned the player would miss at least the next month.
The most obvious course of action for the Flyers now would be to recall Sam Morin from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The question will be where he plays in the lineup and whether Morin is given an extended number of games as a starter or is rotated in and out with veteran Brandon Manning along with rookie Travis Sanheim (who has dressed in five of the team's eight games to date). Radko Gudas might slide up to the top pairing with Ivan Provorov.
Morin and Sanheim played together last season on the Phantoms, with Morin playing left defense and Sanheim on the right. It remains to be seen if Hakstol would be comfortable with a pairing of two rookies at the NHL level. Another option might be to slide rookie Robert Hägg up to the Provorov pairing. However, with Shayne Gostisbehere playing some of the best hockey of his career and having found chemistry with Hägg, the Flyers may want to keep that pairing together and adjust another pairing.
If the plan now is for Manning to enter the lineup as a regular starter instead of a spot starter, the Flyers might opt for a Phantoms callup other than Morin. Mark Alt (whose lone NHL game came back in 2014-15) or T.J. Brennan (53 NHL games) as the seventh defenseman for the time being.
Brennan, however, is also dealing with an injury at present. He missed both of the Phantoms' games over the weekend. Also injured is highly touted Phantoms' rookie Phil Myers, who left Friday's game in the first period.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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