DENVER -- This five-game western road trip is starting to hurt the Flyers on the injury front.
Matt Read missed Thursday’s 2-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche because of an upper-body injury suffered against Calgary on New Year’s Eve (see story).
And now the red-hot first line of the Flyers took a torpedo to the hull in their loss to the Avs (see game recap).
Michael Raffl was concussed with about three minutes left in the first period after what appeared to be a legal board check from Colorado winger Gabriel Landeskog.
“He won’t play next game,” said coach Craig Berube, referring to Saturday’s game in Glendale, Ariz., against the Coyotes.
Berube thought it was a clean play.
“It’s fine, not a penalty,” he said. “It’s kind of a tough play. [Raffl's] head is against the glass already and the guy hit him. I don’t think it was a dirty hit at all.”
Raffl didn’t look good after the game, his face a bit cut up and glassy-eyed.
“You’re missing two good forwards, but they're guys replacing them,” Berube said. “Guys got to step up. Injuries happen. No sense worrying about it.”
Berube rotated wingers on the top line using Steve Downie, Brayden Schenn and Zac Rinaldo to work with Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek.
“Everybody played well. We didn’t have any passengers,” Berube said. “You come to Colorado and it’s tough with the altitude. It’s not easy. I played here. It’s not an easy thing.”