The Flyers will be without one of their top forwards for a little while as the team announced late Thursday (Twitter link) that Sean Couturier is out with an upper-body injury and has been placed on injured reserve. He is listed as being out week to week.
It has been a tough year for the 29-year-old who has struggled offensively compared to his production from the last few seasons. Through 29 games, Couturier has just six goals and 11 assists, his lowest point per game average since 2016-17. He continues to play a big role defensively as always and is winning nearly 56% of his faceoffs but as someone that was penciled in as their top center, that production is somewhat underwhelming although GM Chuck Fletcher revealed earlier this month that Couturier has been playing through a variety of upper-body and lower-body issues this season.
Even with the slower than anticipated start offensively, Couturier will still be a big loss for the Flyers who are still playing him more than 20 minutes per night. After clearing COVID protocol earlier this week, the hope was that he’d be ready to return to the lineup but now, they’re hoping that he won’t be out more than a few weeks as they look to hang around the mix in the battle for the last Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
with no explanation as is usual