The look on Paul Holmgren's face pretty told you what to expect.
"It doesn't sound too good," the Flyers general manager said.
On Monday, the Flyers thought everything was about to come up orange 'n black for thier season opener Saturday night against the Rangers.
Now it's coming up black 'n blue as another defenseman will likely go under the knife. Randy Jones has a labrum tear in his right hip. He told reporters today, in his mind, surgery is the only answer and Holmgren didn't disagree even though Dr. Thomas Byrd, the hip guru from Nashville, will make the final decision.
You can book it. Jones will have the surgery and miss 6-8 weeks just as Parent will have surgery next week to his right shoulder and miss at least at least 12 weeks. Jones want to play pain free by Christmas and if he has the surgery now, he'll be able to do that.
“Surgery will be the best thing to get this fixed and take away all the pain and the groin issues and everything else,” Jones told reporters after practice.
Although Holmgren would not commit that rookie Luca Sbisa's situation could go from 10 games to an entire season, my hunch is that if Sbisa plays very well in October, given the loss of Jones, he would stick around. Here's why. The Flyers could call up a player from the Phantoms but given Sbisa has already beat them out, then sending him back to junior would actually be weakening the team.
Their only real outside option is to trade for a veteran player and lose salary. They're too close to the cap to take on additional salary without a trade.
BTW: Parent practiced today because his surgery will occur next week when the Flyers are on the road. He wanted to get some skating in now.
Here's a
link to my story on Randy Jones, running on Comcast SportsNet.
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Updated: Randy Jones tells us he will need right hip surgery because of a torn labrum and other issues. He will miss 6-8 weeks, at a minimum. Dr. Thomas Byrd in Nashville will offer his opinion this week. GM Paul Holmgren said the assumption is surgery is necessary. Don't look for the Flyers to claim anyone off waivers ... not yet, anyway.
More to come ...
Flyers lines are all over the place today as coach John Stevens appears to be concealing what his true lines are right now.
The bigger concern this morning, however, is where are Randy Jones and Mike Richards? Neither is on the ice.
Also, even though Ryan Parent is about to have shoulder surgery, he is actually on the ice taking practice.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • 
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