Sean Couturier will miss Flyers’ game at the Kings with an upper-body injury
Couturier played 15 minutes, 23 seconds in Wednesday’s 3-2 overtime win against the Anaheim Ducks. Luke Glendening and Denver Barkey also missed Thursday's game in Los Angeles.
The Flyers were without their captain on Thursday when they faced the Los Angeles Kings to close out a Southern California back-to-back.
According to coach Rick Tocchet, Sean Couturier missed the game with an upper-body injury.
“I don’t think it’s long-term, but I don’t know,” Tocchet said.
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It’s hard to gauge when Couturier was injured. He played 15 minutes, 23 seconds in Wednesday’s 3-2 overtime win against the Anaheim Ducks in a hybrid center role with Luke Glendening. His line, which included winger Garnet Hathaway, scored the Flyers’ first goal, and Glendening and Couturier teamed up on the penalty kill.
The hybrid role, which saw Glendening take the center slot in warmups, was based on who would take a faceoff; Couturier is a left-shot, and Glendening is a righty. Couturier was 5-for-8 in the faceoff circle Wednesday night, and he took the opening face-off for overtime, winning it against ex-Flyer Ryan Poehling, before going to the bench for Trevor Zegras to come on the ice.
Couturier has seven goals and 29 points in 66 games this season. He missed one game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in November after taking a high shot by Noah Juulsen off his upper-body two nights prior.
With Couturier out, the thought was that Glendening would maintain the center spot, but he missed Thursday’s game as well with a lower-body injury and is day-to-day. Glendening, who ended a 77-game drought on Wednesday with his first goal of the season and first with the Flyers since being claimed off waivers on March 6.
“Very thankful to have this opportunity. It’s kind of a weird 24 hours,” he said on Thursday, recalling his experience after being placed on waivers by the New Jersey Devils.
“You just have no idea what’s going to happen. In all honesty, I was playing with my kids and dealing with that, and I got a text from somebody who’s like, you’re going to Philly. I had no idea so but yeah, super excited to be here. It’s been awesome so far.”
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When he is in the lineup, Glendening brings a veteran presence and has played in 921 regular-season and 50 playoff games.
“I don’t know how to explain my game,” he said with a toothless grin. “It’s not flashy by any stretch of the imagination. I just try to base it off work, and compete, and blocking shots, taking faceoffs.
“It’s not glamorous by any stretch of the imagination.”
Dever Barkey also missed Thursday’s game with an upper-body injury and is day-to-day.